A Little Of The Old In And Out



O-Face. (image via ideagrove)

In: Bill O'Reilly. Sure, he worked a little "snug" in his interview of Obama, staying on top of the candidate, almost disrespectfully, barely concealing his boiling Long Island rightist rage. Then, O'Reilly, who fancies himself an Independent, defended Obama in the "Lipstick-on-a-Pig" imbroglio.

-- And he just re-upped at Fox for somewhere north of $10 million a year at Fox. From The NYDailyNews:

"The top-rated cable news network is expected to announce as soon as Wednesday that O'Reilly has signed a new multi-year contract. The deal is estimated to be worth between $10 million and $12 million a year.

"What O'Reilly won't be doing for the next four years, apparently, is his daily radio show.

"O'Reilly told The News Tuesday that he's reevaluating his syndicated radio program and will likely give it up."

(image via nationalgeographic)

Out: China. It's not been a good week for China. First, Beijing's envoy Zhang Mingqing sustained what can only be properly construed as "a slam jammie" at the hands of nimble Taiwanese protesters (and his vehicle was stomped). Now, this. From ForeignPolicy:

"China's GDP growth dipped to 9 percent in the past three months, the slowest rate in five years. The economy has been dragged down by a slump in the real estate market, weak exports, and a softening of consumer spending, in addition to increased pressures from the global financial crisis.

"President Hu Jintao and U.S. President George W. Bush spoke over the phone Wednesday about the ongoing crisis. Hu seems to be growing more concerned about the condition of the U.S. financial system. Some analysts believed that resiliency in the Chinese economy could head off a worldwide recession, but slowing domestic demand will make China more vulnerable to decreases in investment from abroad."

(image via villagevoice)

In: 50 Cent Reaches Child Visitation Settlement. The biggest loser in a child custody case is the child. And the war between 50 cent and the mother of his child has veered into exceptionally odd territory, including a suspiciously burned home (that case goes to trial in January). But at least some of the acrimony can die down. From Newsday:

"Rapper 50 Cent reached a visitation settlement with the mother of his 11-year-old son Wednesday.

"The agreement will give the rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, one weekend per month with his son Marquise, as well as one month in the summer and half of each his winter and spring recess breaks.

"'I'm happy it's actually done with,' 50 Cent said outside Suffolk County Family Court in Central Islip.

"The Manhattan attorney representing the mother, Shaniqua Tompkins, said he was satisfied with the agreement reached in the courtroom of Judge David Freundlich."

(image via wikipedia)

Out: Will Bosnia Collapse? If Bosnia falls, will it fall with a bang not a whimper? And will The Hollow Men hurl words and write human rights declarations from the Parliament of man afterwards? Will they do anything now, while there is time?

Paddy Ashdown and Richard Holbrooke write in The Guardian that as The West is distracted, weary, overextended by the two wars and, presently, the financial crisis, Russia has been pumping petro-dollars, scheming, in order to destabilize Bosnia. The Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic share an uneasy peace. But Joe Biden's curious monologue concerning the possibility of a President Obama's being "tested" brought The Corsair's mind to the uneasy possibility that Bosnia might be on Russia's radar as such an arena for a geopolitical move. From The Guardian:

"Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, once the darling of the international community (and especially Washington) for his opposition to the nationalist Serb Democratic party, has adopted that party's agenda without being tainted by their genocidal baggage. His long-term policy seems clear: to place his Serb entity, Republika Srpska, in a position to secede if the opportunity arises. Exploiting the weaknesses in the country's constitutional structure, the international community's weariness and EU inability to stick by its conditionality, he has, in two years, reversed much of the real progress in Bosnia over the past 13, crucially weakened the institutions of the Bosnian state, and all but stopped the country's evolution into a functioning (and EU-compatible) state."

The EU's almost pathological weakness of will doesn't help things, either. More here.