New Episode: Tax Cheats, Secret Sources & My Guy Karzai

Posted at 10:18 AM on November 6, 2009 by Jeff Horwich (0 Comments)

Starting today, we're going to start putting up blog entries for each episode. This should make the podcast easier to use with iGoogle and some other applications.

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* TaxGirl Kelly Phillips Erb on the new IRS push to collect from sneaky rich people
* Christian Science Monitor writer Ben Arnoldy from Kabul, on what happened with Karzai, Pakistan vs. Afghanistan priorities, and Afghan nightlife
* Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Chris Ison stops by with details on the federal "shield law" proposal working its way through Congress
* NewsTune: Our guy, Karzai. (video)
* Listener responses to: How have you been shaped by where you're from?
* Swine-flu vaccine, Chorus Line-style

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The nightlife in Afghanistan

Posted at 11:12 AM on November 5, 2009 by Sanden Totten (0 Comments)

Whether or not they supported Hamid Karzai, Afghans everywhere must be breathing a small sigh of relief now that the drawn out fall election is finally over. He may not be everyone's dream come true, but at least it's one less uncertainty in a country plagued with uncertainties.

For Ben Arnoldy the end of the election means a chance to get out of Kabul and see the beautiful country side. Ben's a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor covering Afghanistan and Pakistan. He explained to In The Loop why Hamid Karzia's greatest strength as a leader may also be his greatest weakness. He also gave us the details of the modest night life in Kabul. Listen in.

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NewsTune: Karzai (the song)

Posted at 2:24 PM on November 4, 2009 by Jeff Horwich (1 Comments)

I might have a slight cold, but the news-worthy-of-karaoke-parody-treatment never rests. This week it's the "election" of Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan. Our buddy.

Listen for it as well in the next podcast, paired with a great interview with the Christian Science Monitor's reporter in the region.

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Which Vikings player should In The Loop (try to) interview?

Posted at 1:21 PM on November 2, 2009 by Jeff Horwich (4 Comments)

So, of course we thought it would be fun to interview Brett Favre.

Not a local-TV-sports/fawning-blah-blah interview, but a real interview. It seemed destined to be: After all, I was born in Wisconsin, rooted for the Pack and Favre for years, and now he followed me to Minnesota. (Didn't follow me along the way to Montana, North Carolina or Tokyo, though. That would have been something.)

Not surprisingly, the Purple Wall of Public Relations shut us down: No interviews with Favre. Even though we wrote a catchy song about him? Nope.

BUT they would try to get In The Loop an interview with another player of our choice, they said. So we asked for your recommendations on Facebook and Twitter, and here are your leading nominations. Let's put this to a vote.

Disclaimer: There's no guarantee the Vikes will grant us an interview with your first choice...or with anyone, really, even though they sort of promised that. And if you like, it would be really helpful if you wanted to briefly explain your choice in the comments below...we don't know all of our ancillary Vikings as well as we should.

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Down but not out in Detroit

Posted at 12:41 PM on October 26, 2009 by Sanden Totten (0 Comments)

This economy is rough. But by all accounts Michigan is one of the places getting it the worst. The state's major industry, car manufacturing, is on the ropes. Unemployment is around 15%. Whole swaths of urban areas are vacant as people up and leave homes they can no longer afford. Some parts of Detroit are even being reclaimed by the plants that once grew wild there.

In the midst of all this is Anne Marie Graham-Hudak. She grew up outside the Motor City and she blogs about unemployment in Michigan. We gave her a call to find out how things are in MI. She said it's bad but that there are a lot of dedicated people working to change that.

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From the cockpit...

Posted at 2:02 PM on October 23, 2009 by Jeff Horwich (1 Comments)

Got ahold of some of the cabin audio recording from that wayward Northwest / Delta flight.

Nifty.

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The Pakistani military goes in big

Posted at 10:28 AM on October 23, 2009 by Sanden Totten (0 Comments)

The word in Pakistan is that this is the big one. For weeks now the Pakistani military has been charging into Taliban territory. Everyday there are updates on the number of militants arrested or taken out by national soldiers. By all accounts this is the fiercest push yet from Pakistan's military to unseat the Taliban from the country's border regions.

But why now? Why after years of pressure from the U.S. and others to take back these regions did Pakistan finally decide to go in guns a blazing? And how much hope do they have of succeeding?

To get some insight on these questions we called up Ahsan Butt, a native of Karachi currently living in Chicago. He blogs about Pakistan at Five Rupees and he said a big reason for the offensive is the Taliban's own poor PR.

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Weighing in on Google Wave

Posted at 5:36 PM on October 21, 2009 by Sanden Totten (0 Comments)

It's a revolution! It's the next big thing! It's what all the kids want for Christmas!

Of course I'm talking about Google Wave. And anyone following the tech world knows that Google Wave is a big deal. But what exactly does it do? And can it possibly live up to all the hype?

In The Loop assembled a hardy band of Wave pioneers to weigh in on how they've been using the paradigm shifting but ultimately hard to explain program. Listen in, and let us know what you think of Google Wave.

ps: Our esteemed panel includes Jeremy Pavleck (@jpavleck), Stacia Marlett (@factory_worker), Than Tibbetts (@thanland) and our own Sanden Totten (@sandentotten).

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NewsTune: For the financial CEOs...

Posted at 11:25 AM on October 21, 2009 by Jeff Horwich (0 Comments)

Evidently, the financial crisis didn't make much of a dent in the financial perks awarded to the CEOs of the country's top financial services companies, including firms ponying up for things like country club dues and CEOs' income tax bills. (Cite: WashPost this week.)

Here's a little song about dat, featuring a cool little pear-shaped tenor guitar.

And hey, it's our first music video in widescreen! Nifty.

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Q: "Can my membership support In The Loop?"

Posted at 3:47 PM on October 19, 2009 by Jeff Horwich (2 Comments)

We get that question when the MPR Member Drive rolls around. And this time we actually have a good answer:

Yes. (Sort of.)

This time, we have a special link that will let you register your support for ITL when you get a new membership or renew yours online:

http://bit.ly/ITLMember1 (or click that button above)

What using this link does: Gives us a basic count of people who want to indicate their support for the show.
What this does not do: Provide any direct financial support to In The Loop; allow us to track individual member info, or contribution amounts.

It's basically just a "pass-through" link, like a ticker on a subway turnstile. But it'll be fun to see the number when the drive wraps up (and useful for us and our bosses). It doesn't change anything about your membership process.

If you'd like to make more of an impression, you can also put "In The Loop" in the comments about why you contribute. People who take that extra step will give us some baseline sense of what $$$ ITL is able to contribute to the drive.

Thanks!

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