Friday, October 17, 2008

September 2008 on the campaign trail was a month full of surprise and calls for unity despite a growing negativity. The Republican national convention was held and the start of the economic crisis threatened to plague the first presidential debate.

Republicans

• At the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, some notable moments included Michael Steele’s coining of the phrase “drill baby drill” during a convention speech not carried on the major networks. Rudy Giuliani and Joe Lieberman each gave keynote addresses that attacked Senator Obama, especially in Giuliani’s case. The most memorable moment was Governor Sarah Palin’s speech, seen by as many Americans as Obama’s during the Democratic Convention, in which she gave a critically acclaimed performance that overshadowed McCain’s speech on the final day.
• Congressman and former Presidential candidate Ron Paul held a counter convention of his own at the Target Center in Minneapolis that drew a crowd of 12,000 people. The convention featured former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, widely speculated to make a presidential run in 2012. During the convention Ventura questioned the mainstream account of responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.
• Following the Republican Convention McCain experienced a surge in polling, which greatly reduced Obama’s slight lead and showed McCain with a lead in most polling for the first time since May 2008. The selection of Palin also increased Republican voter enthusiasm in the polls.
• Following the stock market crash later in September and the subsequent negotiations for a bailout plan, Senator McCain suspended his campaign and returned to Washington D.C. to try to reach an agreement. He asked Senator Obama to join him and postpone the debate scheduled for later in the week but Obama responded that he could do both and that he would show up for the debate at the University of Mississippi.
• On the day of the debate, questions swirled over whether or not McCain would show, he did and the debate was held. The debate moderated by Jim Lehrer was supposed to surround foreign policy but the economic crisis took center stage, which Obama and McCain mostly agreed upon. The differences surrounded McCain’s differences with Obama on the surge policy in Iraq and Obama’s earlier suggestion that he would meet with leaders of rogue nations without preconditions.

Democrats

• As most media attention surrounded Sarah Palin in the beginning of September, Obama-Biden fell in the polls and were not at the focus of most news stories, however on September 11, Obama and McCain called a truce and met in New York City for the seventh anniversary of 9/11.
• Barack Obama launched an ad campaign that criticized John McCain as “out of touch” and “out of date” highlighting his computer illiteracy. Biden criticized his running mate’s ad as “terrible” and also criticized an ad by the McCain campaign from earlier in the month that suggested that Obama supports sex education for kindergarten level children.
• Later in September Obama abandoned his earlier 50-state strategy withdrawing resources from traditional red states such as North Dakota, Montana and Georgia that Obama stated he would contest. The campaign removed staffers from some states and sent them to nearby states considered to be winnable, such as from Georgia to North Carolina.
• Following the economic crisis, Obama’s numbers raised significantly in the polls leading McCain by as many as seven points by the end of the month. Obama asked McCain to appear with him at a press conference to restore consumer confidence. Obama also joined McCain in Washington to help with the negotiations on a bailout plan. But he rejected McCain’s call to postpone the presidential debate.
• At the presidential debate many critics believed Obama presented himself as presidential, the task many claimed he needed to accomplish. During the debate Obama linked the financial crisis to Bush administration policies and spoke out against the lead up to the war in Iraq and the need for more troops in Afghanistan.

Third parties

• Libertarian Party presidential nominee Bob Barr asked Congressman and 1988 Libertarian Party presidential nominee Ron Paul to run with him as his running mate. Barr’s running mate Wayne Allyn Root volunteered to step down if Paul accepted, but he declined.
• Congressman Ron Paul appeared at a press conference with the Constitution and Green Party’s presidential nominees Chuck Baldwin and Cynthia McKinney as well as Independent candidate Ralph Nader. He announced that he was endorsing all four major third party candidates including Libertarian nominee Bob Barr.
• After Barr admonished Paul for his endorsement of four candidates, believing the congressman should endorse his campaign, Paul removed his endorsement for Barr and decided in a statement to endorse Constitution Party nominee Chuck Baldwin’s campaign, a candidate whom he called a “friend” and an “active supporter” of his campaign.
• Following the presidential debate in which he was not allowed to participate in, Barr criticized both presidential candidates for their support of the bailout plan; he called it a “debate between big government and bigger government.” Barr then referred to himself as the “change” candidate.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Companies in the United States are shedding more jobs, pushing the country’s unemployment rate to a 26-year high of 9.8%.

The US Labor Department said on Friday that employers cut 263,000 jobs in September, with companies in the service industries — including banks, restaurants and retailers — hit especially hard. This is the 21st consecutive month of job losses in the country.

The United States has now lost 7.2 million jobs since the recession officially began in December 2007. The new data has sparked fears that unemployment could threaten an economic recovery. Top US officials have warned that any recovery would be slow and uneven, and some have predicted the unemployment rate will top 10% before the situation improves.

“Continued household deleveraging and rising unemployment may weigh more on consumption than forecast, and accelerating corporate and commercial property defaults could slow the improvement in financial conditions,” read a report by the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook, predicting that unemployment will average 10.1% by next year and not go back down to five percent until 2014.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, said that “it’s a very fragile and tentative recovery. Policy makers need to do more.”

“The number came in weaker than expected. We saw a lot of artificial involvement by the government to prop up the markets, and now that that is starting to end, the private sector isn’t yet showing signs of life,” said Kevin Caron, a market strategist for Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.

Also on Thursday, the US Commerce Department said factory orders fell for the first time in five months, dropping eight-tenths of a percent in August. Orders for durable goods — items intended to last several years (including everything from appliances to airliners) — fell 2.6%, the largest drop since January of this year.

The US government has been spending billions of dollars — part of a $787 billion stimulus package — to help spark economic growth. There have been some signs the economy is improving.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday that spending on home construction jumped in August for its biggest increase in 16 years. A real estate trade group, the National Association of Realtors, said pending sales of previously owned homes rose more than 12 percent in August, compared to August 2008.

A separate Commerce Department report said that consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of US economic activity, rose at its fastest pace in nearly eight years, jumping 1.3 percent in August.

Other reports have provided cause for concern. A banking industry trade group said Thursday the number of US consumers making late payments, or failing to make payments, on loans and credit cards is on the rise. A survey by a business group, the Institute for Supply Management, Thursday showed US manufacturing grew in September, but at a slower pace than in August when manufacturing increased for the first time in a year and a half.

Stock markets reacted negatively to the reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 41 points in early trading, reaching a level of 9467. This follows a drop of 203 points on Thursday, its largest loss in a single day since July. The London FTSE index fell 55 points, or 1.1%, to reach 4993 points by 15.00 local time.

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

On Saturday, the Indonesian Navy announced its submarine KRI Nanggala 402, which had lost contact early morning 4:30 am local time on Wednesday, had sunk and cracked off in the Bali Strait during a training exercise. The Navy also declared the submarine’s crew of 53 dead, and said the wreckage was found.

According to Air Marshall Hadi Tjahjanto, pictures received were of the parts of the submarine such as the rear vertical rudder, anchors, outer pressure body, and embossed dive rudder.

The Navy stated on Saturday, the submarine was now considered sunk, not merely missing, having previously said that the oxygen supply would have run out by Saturday morning.

Per reports, items were found from the submarine that included a bottle of grease, prayer mats and a piece of metal pipe. The ones found near the last location of the submarine were parts of the submarine itself, and would not have gotten out unless there was water pressure, Tjahjanto said.

Tjahjanto also said there was an oil spill in the area and the debris were indications the submarine had a leakage due to diving too deep, or released the oil while rising to the surface.

The search team focused on determining the exact location of the submarine, but authorities warned it would be hard to do any salvage operation because of the deep waters.

The Singapore Navy’s MV Swift Rescue submarine rescue ship helped in the effort and deployed a robot which took the images. Other countries including Malaysia, the United States, India and Australia aided search for potential rescue. KRI Rigel, an Indonesian ship, scanned the area where the submarine was presumed to have sunk using multi-beam sonar and a magnetometer.

According to military chief Yudo Margono, the scan determined the submarine to be at a depth of 850 metres. According to Al Jazeera, it was well below its survivable limit of 500 metres. “The cracks happened gradually in some parts when it went down”, Margono said.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Sweden’s first royal wedding since 1976 took place Saturday when Crown Princess Victoria, 32, married her long-time boyfriend and former personal trainer, Daniel Westling, 36. The ceremony took place at Stockholm Cathedral.

Over 1,200 guests, including many rulers, politicians, royals and other dignitaries from across the world, attended the wedding, which cost an estimated 20 million Swedish kronor. Victoria wore a wedding dress with five-metre long train designed by Pär Engsheden. She wore the same crown that her mother, Queen Silvia, wore on her wedding day 34 years previously, also on June 19. Victoria’s father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, walked Victoria down the aisle, which was deemed untraditional by many. In Sweden, the bride and groom usually walk down the aisle together, emphasising the country’s views on equality. Victoria met with Daniel half-way to the altar, where they exchanged brief kisses, and, to the sounds of the wedding march, made their way to the the silver altar. She was followed by ten bridesmaids. The couple both had tears in their eyes as they said their vows, and apart from fumbling when they exchanged rings, the ceremony went smoothly.

Following the ceremony, the couple headed a fast-paced procession through central Stockholm on a horse-drawn carriage, flanked by police and security. Up to 500,000 people are thought to have lined the streets. They then boarded the Vasaorden, the same royal barge Victoria’s parents used in their wedding, and traveled through Stockholm’s waters, accompanied by flyover of 18 fighter jets near the end of the procession. A wedding banquet followed in the in the Hall of State of the Royal Palace.

Controversy has surrounded the engagement and wedding between the Crown Princess and Westling, a “commoner”. Victoria met Westling as she was recovering from bulemia in 2002. He owned a chain of gymnasiums and was brought in to help bring Victoria back to full health. Westling was raised in a middle-class family in Ockelbo, in central Sweden. His father managed a social services centre, and his mother worked in a post office. When the relationship was made public, Westling was mocked as an outsider and the king was reportedly horrified at the thought of his daughter marrying a “commoner”, even though he did so when he married Silvia. Last year, Westling underwent transplant surgery for a congenital kidney disorder. The Swedish public have been assured that he will be able to have children and that his illness will not be passed on to his offspring.

Westling underwent years of training to prepare for his new role in the royal family, including lessons in etiquette, elocution, and multi-lingual small talk; and a makeover that saw his hair being cropped short, and his plain-looking glasses and clothes being replaced by designer-wear.

Upon marrying the Crown Princess, Westling took his wife’s ducal title and is granted the style “His Royal Highness”. He is now known as HRH Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland. He also has his own coat-of-arms and monogram. When Victoria assumes the throne and becomes Queen, Daniel will not become King, but assume a supportive role, similar to that of Prince Phillip, the husband of the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II.