Former Tampa Tribune reporter and LakelandLocal.com blogger Billy Townsend joined me and Alexandra Koutsogiannopolous, a friend of mine from poli sci grad school at USF and the director of programs at the Tampa Bay chapter of the United Nations Association-USA, for our weekly ‘HoCast taping today. Here are the results.
With echoes of the Cold War, the Kennedy Boston accent and Khrushchev’s shoe-banging comes this news: Russia is considering basing some of its strategic (read: nuclear) bombers in Latin America.
From The New York Times:
A top Russian Air Force official said that the government was weighing whether to base strategic bombers out of Cuban territory or on a Venezuelan island that has been offered by President Hugo Chávez, according to the Interfax news service.
In comments made at an awards ceremony on Friday night, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev, chief of staff for Russia’s long-distance aviation division, told reporters that either option would be practical.
“There are four or five airfields in Cuba with 4,000-meter-long runways, which absolutely suit us,” he said. “If the two chiefs of state display such a political will, we are ready to fly there.”
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor
Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
The New York Times on Tuesday reported on a letter President Barack Obama sent to Russian president Dmitri Medvedev supposedly offering to terminate the development of the missile defense system in Europe if Russia became a key player in halting Iran’s nuclear program. Later that day, Obama clarified the content of the letter saying that the NYT article didn’t “accurately characterize the letter.”
“What I said in the letter is what I have said publicly, which is that the missile defense that we have talked about deploying is directed toward, not Russia, but Iran, and what I said … was that, obviously, to the extent that we are lessening Iran’s commitment to nuclear weapons, then that reduces the pressure for, or the need for a missile defense system.”
The NYT article may have mischaracterized the letter if it led readers to believe that the White House was using the missile defense system in Europe as a bargaining chip. I don’t believe that was the intention of the article nor do I think that Obama plans on using the system as a bargaining chip. There is another concern though – that the topic of the defense system even came up at all in the letter. Here’s why…
Your vital headlines in political and media news, with updates throughout the day in the update box on the right:
Let’s check in with our friends at Fox News. The first 2:30 of this clip are maddening, but then Alan Colmes (yeah, Colmes, really) flips the script on his conservative cohorts, leading to much stammering, yelling and Sean Hannity’s contention that McCain’s time as a POW gives him a free pass on marital infidelity.
With 83 days until the election, NBC’s great Chuck Todd breaks down the electoral math.
When is martial law permissible in the U.S.? For one Arkansas town, the answer is “right now!”
Olympic fever and the dull days of August have slowed real news to a trickle. Sports Illustrated has a list of the 25 best sports videos (that contain no actual sports) on YouTube. Here is #1. (Warning: Not for the kids.)
Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone!
