Howard Fineman
Michael Tomasky
Timothy Geithner
"Change has come to America but for it to work, others need to notice and bring it to their worlds as well." - Justin Webb
Most of the tragedy today is focused in Pakistan, but there is enough spread around the world to fuel the news media. If you view these events with empathy, the scale is now where hundreds of people are getting maimed, displaced,abducted, killed, up into the millions. I wonder if we can produce enough food and medical supplies for them all...
Timothy Geithner went to China to reassure the emperors that their assets, our debt, is safe. From the Washington Post: "The United States is committed to a strong and stable international financial system. The Obama administration fully recognizes that the United States has a special responsibility to play in this regard, and we fully appreciate that exercising this special responsibility begins at home," Geithner said in a speech at Peking University on Monday.
China is by far the largest purchaser of U.S. Treasuries and is estimated to hold about 82 percent of its $2 trillion of foreign reserves in dollars. In March, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said he was "concerned about the safety of our assets," and since then other high-level Chinese officials have been pushing for alternatives to the dollar as a reserve currency." Geithner needs to befriend China's economists in a big time suck up, so I'm sure that they will be visiting America sometime soon, maybe touring Disneyworld...
This is from a review of a book written by an editor of Foreign Policy magazine: "Say fatwa to a Westerner and he’s likely to think of an Islamic hit ordered on Salman Rushdie. Yet fatwas are hardly all about severe punishment. So explains Neil MacFarquhar, a former Cairo bureau chief for The Times, in a book excerpt in Foreign Policy. “Often expressed in one terse sentence, fatwas can address mundane questions like whether a Muslim woman should ride a bicycle (usually not — too publicly physical) or if a man ought to wear soccer shorts (only if they modestly come below his knees even when he sits down),” he writes.
Thing is, the edicts are so common in the Islamic world, dispensed by so many religious scholars for so many circumstances, that they are “both the benefit and the bane of Islam having no formal ruling structure,” MacFarquhar writes.
Don’t like the advice from one sage? Then go “fatwa shopping” – “fishing around for a religious scholar who will endorse whatever the supplicant wants.” Or in some places you can just pick up the phone for the dial-a-sheikh service. Although Rushdie might prefer 911."
Timothy Geithner went to China to reassure the emperors that their assets, our debt, is safe. From the Washington Post: "The United States is committed to a strong and stable international financial system. The Obama administration fully recognizes that the United States has a special responsibility to play in this regard, and we fully appreciate that exercising this special responsibility begins at home," Geithner said in a speech at Peking University on Monday.
China is by far the largest purchaser of U.S. Treasuries and is estimated to hold about 82 percent of its $2 trillion of foreign reserves in dollars. In March, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said he was "concerned about the safety of our assets," and since then other high-level Chinese officials have been pushing for alternatives to the dollar as a reserve currency." Geithner needs to befriend China's economists in a big time suck up, so I'm sure that they will be visiting America sometime soon, maybe touring Disneyworld...
This is from a review of a book written by an editor of Foreign Policy magazine: "Say fatwa to a Westerner and he’s likely to think of an Islamic hit ordered on Salman Rushdie. Yet fatwas are hardly all about severe punishment. So explains Neil MacFarquhar, a former Cairo bureau chief for The Times, in a book excerpt in Foreign Policy. “Often expressed in one terse sentence, fatwas can address mundane questions like whether a Muslim woman should ride a bicycle (usually not — too publicly physical) or if a man ought to wear soccer shorts (only if they modestly come below his knees even when he sits down),” he writes.
Thing is, the edicts are so common in the Islamic world, dispensed by so many religious scholars for so many circumstances, that they are “both the benefit and the bane of Islam having no formal ruling structure,” MacFarquhar writes.
Don’t like the advice from one sage? Then go “fatwa shopping” – “fishing around for a religious scholar who will endorse whatever the supplicant wants.” Or in some places you can just pick up the phone for the dial-a-sheikh service. Although Rushdie might prefer 911."
We, as Americans, really know little about other cultures unless they move in next door to us. Then, we are remarkably tolerant, as evidenced by Vietnamese living in Tennessee or a mosque built in Wichita, Kansas. That an ethnic minority has finally been accepted into the mainstream is when you can order some " to go " food from one of their restaurants on a Friday night...
On Thursday, President Barack Obama will give an anticipated major speech in Egypt, and finally the news sources are beginning to prejudge what he is going to say. A good piece is from Justin Webb of the BBC: "Egypt is a politically repressive nation where a democracy movement flourished briefly with support from the Bush White House, but has now been cut loose by Mr Obama and his secretary of state, Mrs Clinton, who said recently that she considered Egypt's autocratic leader, President Mubarak, to be a family friend.
Mr Obama's critics ask: "What's wrong with freedom, with democracy, with pluralism and the rule of law? Why should we go to Cairo (of all places) and apologise for these things?"
Mr Obama's critics ask: "What's wrong with freedom, with democracy, with pluralism and the rule of law? Why should we go to Cairo (of all places) and apologise for these things?"
The Egyptian government issued a statement of what they want to hear, printed in the Gulf Times: "A solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more important to Egypt than confronting Iran’s nuclear programme, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s spokesman Suleiman Awad said yesterday. The government hopes US President Barack Obama will address in his speech from Cairo on Thursday the “essence of the Islamic world’s relations with the US... and that is peace in the Middle East,” Awad said. “Egypt and President Mubarak’s priority is the Palestinian cause,” state news agency Mena quoted him as saying. He was referring to what he called “Israeli media reports” of Israel and Arab countries being equally threatened by Iran’s nuclear programme."
From Howard Fineman in Newsweek: "In a sense, Obama has been waiting to give this speech for years. The real planning began months ago. At first, his staff focused on where he would give it. A strong case was made for Indonesia—a home of sorts, but also the most populous Muslim country and one of the most secular. But Obama insiders settled on Egypt. Why? To show that the U.S. does not shy away from philosophical (as opposed to purely military) confrontation with fundamentalists and Al Qaeda—and to back an ally that recognizes Israel, and that, therefore, can help revive the broken peace process in the Palestinian territories.
In the diplomatic community, there is little doubt the president is doing the right thing in Cairo. "President Bush liked to talk about our shared values, but it came off as didactic," said Tamara Wittes of the Brookings Institution. "His escalating series of military interventions left people in Muslim-majority countries feeling imposed upon. Obama's speech is a game-changer, because he's going to say that we are partners and equals."
In response is an opinion from the Arab News by Hassan Tahsin: "It is hoped that the president would spell out the US policy toward Islam and Muslims with a sincere wish to bridge the widening gap between the Muslim world and the American people particularly exacerbated by his predecessor at the White House. Nonetheless, no body can foretell with certitude the features of Obama's vision about his relations with the Muslim world.
On the eve of his journey with this mission I would like to tell him that all Muslim nations without exception have extremely been pained by the foreign policy of the previous US administration toward the Muslim world. It is needless to say that the president should not take decisions that would not serve the interests of his country.
I would not make impossible demands such as the president should turn against Israel to protect the interests of the Arabs.
I only demand that the new president should repair some of the damages done to the Muslim world by the previous administration including the disintegration of Somalia, efforts to divide Sudan and the occupation of Iraq and indiscriminate killing of its population and destruction of its resources besides sowing seeds of dissention amidst its various ethnic and religious groups. The US should also take a stand toward Iran that would keep down tensions in the Gulf region and it should not refuse to settle the issues peacefully.
It has also been a US practice to mount pressure on the Muslim and Arab countries, which are friendly to the US, to adopt policies that serve American and Israeli interests but creating a lot of embarrassment to the governments in the Muslim countries. These and other issues pertaining to the Middle East should get special priority. The president should make a special study why the situation in the Arab region is worsening.
The issues are, apparently, tough but could be solved only if US abandons its practice of adopting double standards in its approach to issues in the Middle East. The US practice has, undoubtedly, engendered a lot of hatred not only in the Muslim and Arab world but also in the whole world."
So, the bar has been set pretty high and Obama will have to give one of the best speeches of his career or he can set the whole area ablaze. No pressure...
From Howard Fineman in Newsweek: "In a sense, Obama has been waiting to give this speech for years. The real planning began months ago. At first, his staff focused on where he would give it. A strong case was made for Indonesia—a home of sorts, but also the most populous Muslim country and one of the most secular. But Obama insiders settled on Egypt. Why? To show that the U.S. does not shy away from philosophical (as opposed to purely military) confrontation with fundamentalists and Al Qaeda—and to back an ally that recognizes Israel, and that, therefore, can help revive the broken peace process in the Palestinian territories.
In the diplomatic community, there is little doubt the president is doing the right thing in Cairo. "President Bush liked to talk about our shared values, but it came off as didactic," said Tamara Wittes of the Brookings Institution. "His escalating series of military interventions left people in Muslim-majority countries feeling imposed upon. Obama's speech is a game-changer, because he's going to say that we are partners and equals."
In response is an opinion from the Arab News by Hassan Tahsin: "It is hoped that the president would spell out the US policy toward Islam and Muslims with a sincere wish to bridge the widening gap between the Muslim world and the American people particularly exacerbated by his predecessor at the White House. Nonetheless, no body can foretell with certitude the features of Obama's vision about his relations with the Muslim world.
On the eve of his journey with this mission I would like to tell him that all Muslim nations without exception have extremely been pained by the foreign policy of the previous US administration toward the Muslim world. It is needless to say that the president should not take decisions that would not serve the interests of his country.
I would not make impossible demands such as the president should turn against Israel to protect the interests of the Arabs.
I only demand that the new president should repair some of the damages done to the Muslim world by the previous administration including the disintegration of Somalia, efforts to divide Sudan and the occupation of Iraq and indiscriminate killing of its population and destruction of its resources besides sowing seeds of dissention amidst its various ethnic and religious groups. The US should also take a stand toward Iran that would keep down tensions in the Gulf region and it should not refuse to settle the issues peacefully.
It has also been a US practice to mount pressure on the Muslim and Arab countries, which are friendly to the US, to adopt policies that serve American and Israeli interests but creating a lot of embarrassment to the governments in the Muslim countries. These and other issues pertaining to the Middle East should get special priority. The president should make a special study why the situation in the Arab region is worsening.
The issues are, apparently, tough but could be solved only if US abandons its practice of adopting double standards in its approach to issues in the Middle East. The US practice has, undoubtedly, engendered a lot of hatred not only in the Muslim and Arab world but also in the whole world."
So, the bar has been set pretty high and Obama will have to give one of the best speeches of his career or he can set the whole area ablaze. No pressure...
And the Jewish settlers on the West Bank are not too happy with the US's position on their settlements: "Jewish settlers have injured at least four Palestinians in attacks near the town of Nablus the occupied West Bank, witnesses say. They were venting anger on Monday at reported plans to remove authorised settler outposts.
The settlers hurled rocks at drivers, burned fields, cut down olive trees and opened fire in the direction of Palestinians who were trying to chase them from their land, the witnesses said.
Dozens of masked settlers gathered at an intersection near the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar on Monday after three settler caravans had been removed from a site in the northern West Bank.
The international community regards all settlement activity as illegal and Israel is committed under the peace "roadmap" agreed with the Palestinians in 2003, to stopping settlements.
Whew. Not too far away from this, the target of the five day Georgian and Russian military exercise, South Ossetia had elections to set up a puppet government loyal in all ways to Moscow. There were 50,000 registered voters left in the region, and 56,000 showed up to vote, and all opposition parties were not allowed on the ballot.
As reported by the NY Times: "Temuri Yakobashvili, Georgia’s minister of reintegration, called the results illegitimate.
“There are very few people left there,” he said. “Besides the fact that Georgians are not there, there are no ethnic Ossetians there. This is just an attempt to legitimize the Kokoity regime.”
The president’s opponents have suggested that he plans to change the Constitution so that he can run again after his second term ends, in 2011." Which would keep him in lock-step with Vladimer Putin and Dmitry Medvedev...
The settlers hurled rocks at drivers, burned fields, cut down olive trees and opened fire in the direction of Palestinians who were trying to chase them from their land, the witnesses said.
Dozens of masked settlers gathered at an intersection near the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar on Monday after three settler caravans had been removed from a site in the northern West Bank.
The international community regards all settlement activity as illegal and Israel is committed under the peace "roadmap" agreed with the Palestinians in 2003, to stopping settlements.
Whew. Not too far away from this, the target of the five day Georgian and Russian military exercise, South Ossetia had elections to set up a puppet government loyal in all ways to Moscow. There were 50,000 registered voters left in the region, and 56,000 showed up to vote, and all opposition parties were not allowed on the ballot.
As reported by the NY Times: "Temuri Yakobashvili, Georgia’s minister of reintegration, called the results illegitimate.
“There are very few people left there,” he said. “Besides the fact that Georgians are not there, there are no ethnic Ossetians there. This is just an attempt to legitimize the Kokoity regime.”
The president’s opponents have suggested that he plans to change the Constitution so that he can run again after his second term ends, in 2011." Which would keep him in lock-step with Vladimer Putin and Dmitry Medvedev...
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