• Those words of peace and reconciliation didn’t go very far according to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who put out a few words on the subject himself. “The nations in the region hate the United States from the bottom of their hearts because they have seen violence, military intervention and discrimination… The new US government seeks to transform this image. I say firmly that this will not be achieved by talking, speech and slogans.”

• Another diplomatic issue unfolded in South Korea, as Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore’s California-based Current TV, went on trial for charges of espionage. If convicted, they could receive as much as 10 years in a labor camp.

• New Hampshire became the latest state to legalize gay marriage, as Gov. John Lynch signed the bill that passed the House by 198-176 and the Senate by 14-10.

• It’s good news, bad news, or unimportant news for Cuba, which was just readmitted into the Organization of American States after a vote by said group. Despite the communist country’s exclusion from the OAS since 1962, and possibly because of President Obama’s attempts to use membership as a leverage in his recent negotiations, former President Fidel Castro said earlier this week that he doesn’t care about rejoining the organization.

• Four U.S. Congressional Republicans introduced legislation calling for government stock in General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to be turned into shares and divvied out to the American people.

Friday, June 05, 2009

• The markets reacted tenuously to news of the U.S. jobless rate hitting 9.4% last month. Normally that news would have sent investors into a tizzy, but it was buffered by a major decrease in layoffs: 345,000, the fewest since September ‘08.

• For the next leg of his international trip, President Obama toured a WWII concentration camp and stepped on Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s toes, when he made some pointed statements about people who would deny the holocaust. But he also may have further angered Israelis when he went on to say that he hoped Israel’s experiences with suffering have allowed them to empathize with other’s, as he believes such understanding could be used in Palestinian negotiations to achieve true peace.

• Political attacks on Sonia Sotomayor stepped up as further documentation revealed that her controversial “wise Latina” comments were not isolated, and that she’s made more than one reference to her ethnicity and gender factoring into her rulings as judge.

• And if you’ve forgotten about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s comments about the CIA lying, that’s exactly what House Minority Leader John Boehner does not want you to do. “She’s made this outrageous claim,” he said, “(and she) believes that it’s just all going to go away. Well, trust me: It’s not going to go away.” He and his fellow Republican lawmakers have promised to keep on Pelosi until she either apologizes or presents compelling evidence to support her accusation.

I’ll be gone all next week, but will be back same as always on Monday, June 15. Until then, enjoy your weekend - both of them!