Global Finance, Global Terrorism, Global Warming

The key term is global. America can't do it alone. That admission has to be the starting point for the building of a new architecture for the trillions in global finances that move around like data on the internet. The internet is global.

America is lucky to have Barack Obama for president. That is a global person. He is a Hawaii guy. He was 11 when he first got to see the continental US, and he saw it on a Greyhound bus. He was raised by a white mother, white grandparents. I have always thought of him as white.

The current crisis is a lesson in humility for America. Yes, we can. That is a call for humility. And a touch of boldness. Humility itself is a bold act.

The problem with American banking is not that the banks have not had enough money. That is why the bailout can not be the number one thing you do, the stimulus package can not be the number one thing you do.

The problem was the banks had too much outside money and did not know what to do with it, so they gave it out like it was nobody's business. It was not a case of demand and supply. Money did not go where the demand was the greatest. The demand is the greatest in the Global South, the demand is with poor women who need just a little bit of capital to start small businesses. But the warped global financial architecture sent the global money to inflate the prices on American houses. Instead.

The house is on fire. America and the world can not afford a meltdown of the American financial infrastructure. The bailout is water. The stimulus package is water. Putting out the fire is important. But the real task is going to be to build a new house, a new tower. The Twin Towers will be gone when the dust settles.

It is going to be a major challenge to draw the outlines of a new financial architecture. How do you institutionalize transparency, and accountability, and stay as close as possible to the fundamental market ethos? As in how do you not overreact and end up restraining the market forces? On the other hand, how do you make sure you don't sit back and hope things will take care of themselves? There is major work that needs to be done.

People, voters did not realize when he first started saying it, but Barack's bringing people together dictum is what is going to do the trick. You bring world leaders together. You bring together the titans of global finance. You bring together disagreeing politicians. You bring along the powerless and the neglected to the table, you bring them together with those who might always have excluded them, knowingly and unknowingly.

The stimulus package jacks up spending on education. That probably is my favorite part. That is the knowledge economy way. That is the 21st century way.

The last major tinkering with global finance was when the World Bank and the IMF were created. But this crisis is bigger. So minor tinkering with those two institutions will hardly do the trick. The Twin Towers are gone. It is not like they lost a few floors, so you are going to do repair work. They are gone.

A new tower is going to have to be built. A Freedom Tower. A Prosperity Tower.

No piecemeal approach will work. All three big challenges ask for holistic approaches. And because they all do, you can learn from one to the other. If you can make peace in the Middle East, perhaps you can also fix global finance, perhaps you can also tackle global warming.

That is why it is so important to work on Middle East peace. Permanent peace is possible. Has to be. Global warming can be reversed. Has to be. Global terrorism can be defeated. Has to be. Or we are doomed.

Barack's autobiography is Dreams From My Father. I have always thought of Barack as black. President Barack is black.

He has a sister with an Indian name, I have met and talked to one on one, no time pressure. That is how he is my cousin, distant, but still.

That sister is married to a Chinese Canadian. China will not go to war over Taiwan. I am not worried.

While he was running, some neocons tried to emphasize his middle name. Barack was Barack HUSSEIN Obama.

That he is. White, black, Indian, Chinese, Muslim. I am going to argue he gets along a little too well with Rahm Immanuel for my comfort. That makes him part Jewish too.

Barack Hussein Obama is global, yo.

Global Finance, Global Terrorism, Global Warming, Global President.



In The News

House Passes Obama’s Stimulus Package New York Times, United States
Obama welcomes passage of economic stimulus Reuters
House Approves Obama Stimulus Package Voice of America
Obama says tough decisions soon on Iraq, Afghan wars Reuters
'Difficult decisions' on Iraq, Afghanistan ahead: Obama AFP
Obama: Tough decisions on Iraq, Afghanistan loom The Associated Press
Editorial: Obama signals end of polluting with impunity Dallas Morning News, TX
President Obama Meets the Press Huffington Post
Selected recent California newspaper editorials San Jose Mercury News
President Barack Obama reaches out to Muslim world Chicago Tribune, United States
Barack Obama and Heshem Melhem: The Interview Huffington Post
Obama Gives First Interview on Arab TV MSNBC
Obama and the Wimps Washington Post, United States
Obama to shivering Washingtonians: Toughen up Reuters
Obama gives chilly reception to canceled school The Associated Press
Rush Limbaugh Doesn't Need Me to Defend Him FOXNews
Obama vs. Limbaugh, audacity vs. ideology Chicago Tribune
Democrats attack Rush Limbaugh, raise his profile guardian.co.uk
Rush Limbaugh joins nation’s enemies in hoping President Obama ... The Citizen.com
Barack Obama's initial approval rating is highest since JFK Los Angeles Times, CA
Obama Starts Off With High Approval Ratings DiversityInc.com (subscription)
Poll: Two-thirds approve of Obama's job The Associated Press
Under fire for waving to Barack Obama, jake marches on Boston Herald, United States
Ohio firefighter quits band over Obama nod The Associated Press
Drum major who waved at Barack Obama on inauguration day suspended Telegraph.co.uk
Drum major suspended for waving at Obama AFP
Russia ready to shelve missiles plan in conciliatory gesture to Obama guardian.co.uk, UK
Russia offers Obama olive branch on missiles: report Reuters
US Says It Would Welcome Russian Missile Restraint Voice of America
Russia drops plans to deploy missiles next to Poland after Barack ... Telegraph.co.uk
Ahmadinejad welcomes Obama's offer of change CNN
Ahmadinejad Urges Obama to Apologize for ‘Crimes’ Bloomberg
Iran: Obama Must "Unclench" America's Fist CBS News
Iran rejects US demand to halt atom work Reuters
China Tells Obama What to Do With His Yuan Views Bloomberg
US Senators to await Obama lead on China currency Reuters
Geithner's Risky Remark Forbes
The Importance of US-China Relations Center For American Progress
Obama, Vatican Clash Over Abortion FOXNews
Reflections on Obama, peace and abortion Suburban and Wayne Times
Obama sparks abortion dialog The Daily Evergreen
Abortion to be Obama’s ‘Nixon in China’ The Hill
Chicago White Sox invite President Barack Obama to throw out first ... Chicago Tribune, United States
White Sox to release special Barack Obama hat Chicago Sun-Times
White Sox Plan Special Edition Obama Caps Chicagoist
Obama stimulus plan sparks questions over short-term impact Bizjournals.com, NC
Economic Stimulus and Other Outdated Quackery Town Hall
Cantor: Stimulus funds should go to sewers and not be squandered Long Island Business News
Analysis: Stimulus money to take longer to work The Associated Press
Morning Skim: Blagojevich Blitz, Davos Shift and Obama’s Message ... New York Times, United States
To Combat Obama, Al-Qaeda Hurls Insults Washington Post
Clinton: Open international approach could benefit Iran Newsday, NY
Clinton says world "exhaling" with Obama at top Reuters
Bill Clinton Speech Fees Topped $4.7 Million in '08 Wall Street Journal
Clinton urges broader China approach International Herald Tribune
Bank stocks surge on 'bad bank' plan Bizjournals.com, NC
Rally in Banking Stocks Lifts Market TheStreet.com
US Stocks Close Up; 'Bad Bank' Talk Buoys Financials MarketWatch
Michelle Obama Gets the Wax Museum Treatment U.S. News & World Report, DC
Madame Tussauds to unveil wax figure of first lady The Associated Press
Michelle Obama Immortalized in Wax People Magazine
Tussauds creating Michelle Obama figure United Press International
What Will President Obama Do for Blacks? Wilmington Journal, NC
Outdoor recreation: At the National Mall for Obama's inauguration Examiner.com
Students experience Obama inauguration first-hand in DC St. Anselm Crier (subscription)
Obama: Washington's Man About Town ABC News

Bush Did Not Get Just The Geography Wrong On Iraq

There are reports Bush-Cheney started looking for excuses to declare war on Saddam as soon as Bush got into office. It has to be noted Saddam attempted an assassination on Bush Senior some time in the 1990s when Bush Senior went on a visit to Kuwait. It was a plot that went nowhere, but Clinton did send in a few missiles in retaliation. "Not enough," Bush Junior said while campaigning for president in 2000.

The direct and indirect costs of the Iraq War have been estimated at three trillion dollars by the likes of Joseph Stiglitz. That is a ton of money. I am going to argue that sum played a key role in sending the US economy into the tizzy that it is in right now.

The verbal assaults by the Al Qaeda on Barack, the US drone strikes inside of Pakistan, neither have surprised me. The war the Al Qaeda declared on America a long time ago was an ideological war. Two vibrant, opposing ideologies continue to be very much at loggerheads.

Barack immediately started doing what he said he will do. On Guantanamo and torture, on Pakistan. The biggest downside of the misadventure in Iraq has been the Al Qaeda got pretty much a free reign in the stateless parts of northwest Pakistan from where they continue to plot. In his latest tirade Bin Laden has talked of going into "new directions." As far as Bin Laden is concerned, the entire world is a stage. He does not have to strike inside America to prove the resiliency of his organization.

It is hard to fight an unconventional war with a conventional army, with conventional tactics. Iraq was Looking Tokyo Going London, but it was also conventional. You were in a hurry to bring down a state. The Al Qaeda is stateless.

Barack might end the war in Iraq, and he might close Guantanamo, and he might end torture as a tactic, and he is hugely popular in the Arab world, and he might get the geography right in terms of a renewed focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan, but I fear he might get the details wrong.

A big chunk of the work in Pakistan is political. How do you bring the Pakistani army completely under the parliament? How do you bring the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, usually called a state within a state, completely under the Pakistani parliament? The ISI gave birth to the Taliban, but back then that is what the US wanted, the Soviets had gone amok in Afghanistan.

And it would be a mistake to think the Al Qaeda exists only in a particular, rugged province in Pakistan. It is stateless, it is global. It is an ideology seeking converts, seeking the disenchanted, the angry few. They don't even need direct communication half the time to do what they need to do, which is to stage "spectacular" attacks, like the one in Mumbai, London.

I have long maintained the only way to conclude the War On Terror is by bringing about a total spread of democracy in the Arab world. There is a progressive, proactive way to do that that is nothing to do with the Al Qaeda, an organization of a few thousand individuals in an ocean of a billion Arabs/Muslims.

As in, there is not a Bush way to build democracy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, just like there was not one in Iraq. There is a progressive alternative.

Spread Democracy
Revolution

Harassing Arab Americans have been a bad idea. Talking disrespect of Islam as a religion is a bad idea. And the Palestinian plight is a permanent thorn. That has to be resolved. It is a good sign that the first foreign leader President Barack called up was Abbas.

Three major world religions clashing is not a pretty sight. There are complex emotional threads entangled. The situation is volatile, has been for decades. The task is tough. The communists claimed godlessness, the Islamists claim God. At some level that makes their ideology more challenging.

The idea remains to help make the mainstream Muslims feel their destiny is in their own hands. The hard work of peace, the hard work of state building, the hard work on education and health, the hard work of prosperity.

It is not going to be easy. It is not going to be swift. Moments might feel like reverse progress. But it is necessary work, the central challenge in global politics today.

If and when we start seeing more democracies in the Arab world, you can expect the largest political parties to be as steeped in Islam as you could argue the Republican Party in America is steeped in Christianity. Turkey is a case in point.

What the Palestinians are going through right now is worse than apartheid. It feels like a case of child abuse. The Germans abused the Jews so the Jews are going to abuse the Palestinians. Where is the logic in that?

In The News

'Slumdog Millionaire,' an Oscar Favorite, Is No Hit in India Time
Obama's Showdown Over Nuclear Weapons
Pakistan Poses a Growing Challenge for the Obama Administration
Books Gone Wild: The Digital Age Reshapes Literature
As Truce Teeters, Gaza's Tunnelers Dig Undeterred

President Obama 'orders Pakistan drone attacks' Times Online Security officials said the strikes, which saw up to five missiles slam into houses in separate villages, killed seven "foreigners" - a term that usually means al-Qaeda - but locals also said that three children lost their lives. ....... Dozens of similar strikes since August on northwest Pakistan, a hotbed of Taleban and al-Qaeda militancy, have sparked angry government criticism of the US, which is targeting the area with missiles launched from unmanned CIA aircraft controlled from operation rooms inside the US. ........... Mr Obama has made Afghanistan his top foreign policy priority and said during his presidential campaign that he would consider military action inside Pakistan if the government there was unable or unwilling to take on the militants. ........ Since September, the US is estimated to have carried out about 30 such attacks, killing more than 220 people.
Maoists wreak havoc in Bihar The Statesman
India revels in acclaim for 'Slumdog Millionaire' Christian Science Monitor Dharavi, a grubby slum in Mumbai (Bombay) that is touted as Asia's largest ....... "Slumdog ... is Boyle's gift to Mumbai," Shobha De, a socialite and author ....... More than 60 percent of Mumbai's citizens are known to reside in slums. The most visible of them is Dharavi, a labyrinth that is home to more than 1 million people. ....... one toilet for every 1,500 people ...... Many of Mumbai's elite view Dharavi as a blight that must be purged if the city, India's financial and entertainment capital, is to achieve stature as a world-class city. Local politicians have long dreamed of transforming Mumbai into "India's Shanghai."
Windows 7 vs. Mac OS X Snow Leopard: Apple ups the ante Apple Insider
Jindal gets top GOP speaking slot Politico Jindal will headline the National Republican Congressional Committee’s March fundraising dinner ....... will take the speaking slot that in years past belonged to President Bush. ..... Jindal has said he is only focused on running for re-election in Baton Rouge in 2011.
Obama's approval opens high, standard The Swamp - Tribune's Washington Bureau
Barack Obama orders closure of Guantanamo Bay prison The Australian
Clinton shines on first day as secretary of state Newsday With a broad smile, Clinton won excited, almost giddy, applause and cheers from hundreds of diplomats, foreign service officers and staff as she worked a rope line in the department's packed main lobby yesterday morning. ....... Obama and Vice President Joe Biden paid an unusually early visit to Foggy Bottom ....... "I've given you an early gift: Hillary Clinton. ....... She then took an intelligence briefing and toured the building before holding a closed meeting with Obama, Biden and national security advisers.
Hillary Clinton Brings Change to the State Department U.S. News & World Report
Key appointments mark Clinton's first day at State Dept. USA Today
Former NY Senate leader Joseph Bruno indicted The Associated Press
Obama to lift restrictions on abortion funding Reuters
India PM Singh to miss months of election campaign due to heart bypass Telegraph.co.uk speculation that Rahul Gandhi, the son of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and great- grandson of Nehru, will lead the Congress Party campaign. ........ The economist is 76 and this will be his second bypass and third heart operation. He also suffers from diabetes, which is expected to delay his recovery from surgery. ....... Sources close to the Gandhi family say they want Rahul to assume the party leadership as soon as possible. "It is his destiny" ...... he will also replace his father as India's youngest prime minister.
China's Economic Growth Slows Forbes
Feeling Lucky: All Things Google Washington Post
Google CEO Hints at Semantic, Contextual Search eWeek
Last.fm Arrives on Google-Powered Cellphones Wired News
Google writes down Clearwire investment, confident about Android FierceWireless Google reported a net income of $382 million, down 68 percent from the $1.21 billion in the year-ago period, but that was primarily due to write downs of its investments in AOL and Clearwire by $726 million and $355 million, respectively. Google, along with Intel, Comcast, Time Warner, Brighthouse and others invested $3.2 billion in the new Clearwire.
Oscars not ultimate recognition, says Amitabh Bachchan Times of India Bachchan said he was very happy as Indian films were catering to amount 2.5 billion people ..... Describing cinema as a uniting medium, the actor said there was no better example of an integrated India than a cinema hall.
Bollywood's Bachchan apologises to 'Slumdog' director AFP Despite having a British director, producer, writer and studio, India has claimed the film as its own because of its Indian cast, crew and location and is eagerly anticipating next month's Oscars.
An open letter to Amitabh Bachchan Livemint
Filmmakers dogged pursuits earn Oscar's attention Los Angeles Times
`Button' vs. `Slumdog': A study in contrasts MSNBC
Gillibrand Is a Centrist With a Tenacious Style New York Times