Photo: Associated Press
NYTimes: A portion of Beijing's iconic China Central Television campus designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas was set ablaze by an errant firework during the final night of celebrations for the Lunar New Year. Investigators placed the blame for the blaze on China Central Television, whose employees defied the police by staging their illegal pyrotechnics too close to the unfinished complex. One firefighter was killed in the blaze and six others were injured.
A reader at Andrew Sullivan's blog writes on the economic crisis:
It is very interesting to watch how this crisis reveals and highlights character: the sniveling privileged Wall Street upper-crust, the semi-hysterical, uninformed punditocracy, the puerile Republican opposition -- and Obama, cool as a cucumber, playing his game, five steps ahead, setting up moves that won't come to fruition for months or years, while his opposition flails at the thin air where he used to be. I love it.It's the future that is calling Obama, not the present.
The Republican reaction to this stimulus package is on a par with McCain suspending his campaign during the primary to "handle" the economic crisis back in Washington. Completely clueless, cynical empty gestures. They think we'll forget. They're wrong. What Karl Rove wanted, and was willing to steal by any means necessary, Obama will get, handed to him as a free gift by the American people: real political power, the power to transform society for a generation or more.
Just in terms of the historic record here: The Republicans were brought in early and were consulted. Remember when we introduced our framework: They were pleasantly surprised and complimentary about the tax cuts that were presented in that framework. Those tax cuts are still in there! I suppose what I could have done was I could have started out with no tax cuts, knowing I was gonna want some, and maybe that's the lesson I should have learned. But there was consultation….
It's a little hard for me to take criticism from folks of this recovery package, after they presided over a doubling of the national debt. I'm not sure they have a lot of credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility.
On the economic stimulus plan:
Politically, as the dust settles, I suspect Obama outfoxed his opponents, again. They are playing the 24 hour news cycle game. That's all they know (ditto cable news). Obama isn't. That's why he's president. Eventually, they'll figure it out.
“A Walk in the Park”
Gary Amaro
Berkeley, California
One of twelve winning entries in the magazine's second competition of reader's concepts for the annual Eustace Tilley anniversary cover. "Eustace Tilley, the magazine’s mascot, appeared on the cover of the first issue of The New Yorker as well as almost every anniversary issue since."
www.newyorker.com/online/photocontests/eustace_tilley_2009/gallery
