Financial Times correspondents Daniel Dombey and Carola Hoyos have an interesting alert in today’s paper. They write: Pipelines vital to Iraq’s oil industry are in such poor condition they could rupture at any time, choking off the supply of oil from the region and devastating the country’s economy, according to the US State Department.
Senator Chuck Hagel‘s wife, Lilibet, may be watching the debates tonight with Michelle Obama at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York — but I’ll be watching (and live-blogging as usual) in Barack Obama’s home base city, Chicago.
(I would have loved to have been the official blogger with these guys. . .) When I started The Washington Note, my colleagues (particularly my boss) were not thrilled.
The late William F. Buckley‘s son, the talented writer and thinker — Christopher Buckley — surprised many with his brave decision to endorse Barack Obama recently. His announcement created a storm among National Review editors. According to reports, he offered to resign. And it took a nanosecond for the magazine to accept that resignation.
I was just invited to a fundraising dinner for the US-China Education Trust and FY Chang Foundation honoring Treasury Secretary Henry “Hank” Paulson, Jr. The dinner is Friday November 14th. All I can say is best of luck. In case Paulson drops out, perhaps Paul Krugman will be a massively bigger draw.
The canada geese are back in town, and here’s a few of them just off my back porch in Chestertown, Maryland.
Intrade’s future markets are surging in support of a likely Obama win in the presidential race. Just a couple of weeks ago, one could buy an Obama contract for 40, and it’s now 77.7. McCain’s contract is now at 23.1 after having been at about 56.
German Bundestag Member Volker Beck is a great guy — a hard-driving idealist who works hard on environmental improvement, gay rights, and global human rights. Beck was detained and beaten up by Russian police when he tried to advocate for a gay rights parade in Moscow.
If he does, then this exchange has got to be a top ten example of a self-inflicted mortal wound.
In a documentary titled “Torturing Democracy” that has recently aired on PBS, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage stated: There is no question in my mind — there’s no question in any reasonable human being, that this is torture. I’m ashamed that we’re even having this discussion.
