As was widely rumored, President-Elect Barack Obama unveiled his National Security Team today. Here’s the announcement as released:
Good morning. Last week, we announced our economic team, which is working as we speak to craft an Economic Recovery Program to create jobs and grow our struggling economy. Today, Vice President-elect Biden and I are pleased to announce our national security team.
The national security challenges we face are just as grave – and just as urgent – as our economic crisis. We are fighting two wars. Old conflicts remain unresolved, and newly assertive powers have put strains on the international system. The spread of nuclear weapons raises the peril that the world’s deadliest technology could fall into dangerous hands. Our dependence on foreign oil empowers authoritarian governments and endangers our planet.
America must also be strong at home to be strong abroad. We need to provide education and opportunity for our citizens, so every American can compete with anyone, anywhere. And our economic power must sustain our military strength, our diplomatic leverage, and our global leadership.
The common thread linking these challenges is the fundamental reality that in the 21st century, our destiny is shared with the world’s. From our markets to our security; from our public health to our climate –we must act with the understanding that, now more than ever, we have a stake in what happens across the globe. And as we learned so painfully on 9/11, terror cannot be contained by borders, nor safety provided by oceans alone. Continue reading →
Posted in Civil Society, Conflict Resolution, Economy, North America, Policy, Politics, World Affairs
|
Tagged Authoritarian Governments, Barack Obama, Biden, Common Thread, Dark Time, Dependence On Foreign Oil, Diplomatic Leverage, Economic Crisis, Economic Power, Economic Recovery Program, Economic Team, Fundamental Reality, Global Leadership, Innocent Civilians, Military Strength, National Security Challenges, National Security Team, Nuclear Weapons, Peril, President Elect
|
Now that the elections have been fought and won by a once improbable candidate, Americans have quickly reverted to type – worrying about everything and nothing on how the new president will govern. It never ceases to amaze me how much influence a negative culture has on a nations psyche. Here is a candidate who just went through the most gruelling political campaign in U.S. history by some accounts and came out victorious. He took on some of the most established political powers in the history of the United States and won. He managed to raise more money than any candidate for political office ever and created a once-in-a-lifetime political movement that saw a resurgence in participatory democracy that has been lacking for decades. When the going got tough and there were pressures for him to jump into the sewers with his opponents and rehash the same old tired politics of division and personal destruction, he flatly refused and decided to trust the American people to do the right thing and we did. In one single night, his victory as the next president of the United States of America virtually erased almost eight maddening years of hatred and acrimony directed at the U.S. by the rest of the world and engendered by the irresponsible government of president George W. Bush. Anyone listening to hand-wringers about the choices President-Elect Obama has made and is making would think that the world was coming to an end. In some odd way, it seems like most people still do not trust him to do what is right and prudent. That the media would seek the negative news is not surprising, that is after all, how they make their living. But to hear millions of people who volunteered for Obama and avidly followed his every move on the campaign trail express doubt about his intent and even quesion his judgement in terms of his appointees is baffling to say the least. All of a sudden, there is the screaming about too much Clinton in his prospective cabinet picks, but for some odd reason, these same people seem to forget that the same “Clinton People” helped run his campaign. The fact that these former Clinton supporters decided to go with a candidate who was a long shot at the beginning showed that they were not beholden to the Clintons. Continue reading →
Posted in Civil Society, Education, History, Law and Ethics, North America, Politics, World Affairs
|
Tagged Acrimony, Appointees, Cabinet Post, Campaign Trail, Democracies, Democratic Elections, Do The Right Thing, Elective Government, George W Bush, History Of The United States, Histroy, Improbable Candidate, Negative Culture, Negative News, New President, Obama, Odd Reason, Participatory Democracy, Peoiple, Personal Destruction, Political Appointees, Political Campaign, Political Participation, President Elect, President George W Bush, President Of The United States, President Of The United States Of America, Resurgence, Sewers
|
A little over a week before the U.S. presidential elections, CNN, the cable new network, decided to start airing a “comedy show” hosted by the Black comedian D.L. Hughley. On the face of it, it does not look like much, but the bottom line is that in a very sensitive election cycle where a Black candidate is on the verge of becoming the first non-white to be the president of the United States of America, CNN is using Hughley to give voice to its concerns about the Obama candidacy. To avoid being labeled racist, who better to make jokes about a black candidate without the attendant backlash than a black fool? It is a shame that D.L. Hughley is allowing himself to be pimped in such a fashion. One expects him to know that he is just feeding into the stereotype of an idiot (albeit a rich one) making a fool of himself in the village square. The dry jokes are not resonating. It would have been more respectable for him to delay his show until after the election. Perhaps, he could have avoided the unnecessary scrutiny this new gig will attract. Deep down, Hughley knows it’s not going to work. Comedians like him are not used to working in a very scripted environment where the jokes are forced and the language is plastic. There is nothing wrong in making fun of a black presidential candidate or any person of color running for higher office, but it should be done on the terms of the comedian, not as an outlet for a wimpy news organization trying to find a shortcut to asking difficult questions or raising and discussing difficult issues involving ethnicity, race and achievement. D.L. Hughley, you are better than this.
Posted in Civil Society, Economy, History, Law and Ethics, Policy, Politics
|
Tagged Backlash, Bottom Line, Candidacy, Cnn, Cnn New, comedian, Comedians, Comedy Show, D L Hughley, Difficult Questions, Dry Jokes, Election Cycle, Gig, News Organization, Person Of Color, Pimping, President Of The United States, President Of The United States Of America, Presidential Candidate, Presidential Elections, Racist, Scrutiny, Shame, States Of America, Stereotype, Verge
|
In the closing days of this historic presidential campaign, a lot of noise has been made by the Republicans, John McCain and right wing ideologues about the amount of money senator Barack Obama has raised in his quest to be the next president of the United States of America. John McCain has complained about the “failure” of Obama to honor his promise to discuss using public funding in the prosecution of his campaign. What seems to be missing in all this fuss is the discussion of the issue in a holisitic perspective. Given the domination of presidential politics for generations by White men, and the underpinings of a racist environment that has become evident during the course of this campaign, does any one really think that senator Obama would have stood a chance of even winning the party nomination if he did not raise a lot of money? Even as his party’s candidate, is there any doubt that he would have been dead in the water as a Black candidate trying to become the president of the most powerful country in the world? LIke everything touched by race, bigotry and sheer ignorance, Obama had to work twice or three times as hard to even the playing field a little. Had he taken public financing, the Republican party would have made mince meat of him before the campaign even began. Sure there is a lot of hand-wringing now by the Republicans in general and John McCain in particular. Continue reading →
Posted in Civil Society, Education, Law and Ethics, North America, Policy, Politics
|
Tagged Amount Of Money, Barack Obama, Bigotry, Dead In The Water, Housing Market, John McCain, Party Nomination, President Of The United States, President Of The United States Of America, Presidential Campaign, Presidential Politics, Republican Party, Senator Barack Obama, Senator Mccain, Senator Obama, United States Of America, War In Afghanistan, War In Iraq, Wasting Energy, White Men, Year 2000
|
“I know how to win wars”
“I am a maverick”
“I have been tested”
“I know how to get Osama Bin Laden”
Hearing senator John McCain make these claims, the totally uninformed is wont to take the word of the 72-year old at face value. After all, he has been celebrated as a war hero; he is a long-serving U.S. senator; he at some point had a level of self-decency to actually stand for some policies. But on closer observation, we are left with one conclusion: Senator John McCain created a fantasy world that even he has come to believe to be true. We have debunked the nonsense about being a war hero, even as we praised his tenacity in surviving what must have been five brutal years of captivity in Vietnam. We have also argued that the approach of journalists in America being what it is, there has never being an indepth look into the circumstances surrounding the downing of McCain’s plane in Vietnam. We have also expressed our doubts about his claim about knowing how to capture Bin Laden or winning wars. The latest round of outrageous claims by John McCain is the notion that because he was sitting in a fighter jet during the Cuban Missile crisis of the 1960s, he has been tested as Commander-In-Chief of the most powerful military force in the universe! This ridiculous claim, under normal circumstances, would not warrant a rebuttal. But we are living in a country of very shallow intellectual curiosity. Continue reading →
Posted in Civil Society, Conflict Resolution, Economy, History, North America, Policy, Politics, World Affairs
|
Tagged Campaign Trail, Captivity, Commander In Chief, Cuban Missile Crisis, Decency, Face Value, Fantasy World, Fighter Jet, Intellectual Curiosity, John McCain, Maverick, Military Force, Osama Bin Laden, Outrageous Claims, Political Pundits, Rebuttal, Senator John Mccain, Senator Mccain, Soviet Union, Tenacity, War Hero
|
