Barackface: Nobel Prize

Showing posts with label Nobel Prize. Show all posts

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Egypt: The Army May Not Take Over

Image via WikipediaMubarak might try to do that. He might decide to punish the people of Egypt by leaving but then handing over the reins to the top generals in the Egyptian army. That might be his way of saying if you think I was bad, how about this?

Mubarak does not have that option. The people of Egypt are not asking for a military dictatorship. That is what they have had for decades. They are in the streets asking for its end, not rejuvenation.

The mightiest army in the world is powerless in the face of a people who have woken up. And the people of Egypt have woken up.

This is how this drama ends. Mubarak leaves. He does not have to leave the country. He just vacates the seat of power. The constitution is amended to get rid of all anti human rights clauses and to make room for an interim government. An interim president - a civilian democrat like that dude who won the Nobel Prize - comes in with an interim cabinet. That interim cabinet brings in an interim constitution within six months and elections to a constituent assembly are held within a year of taking power. At that point the interim cabinet hands over power to that assembly.

That is the roadmap. The fuck with the military.

Arab Focus, Microfinance Focus
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards

Friday, August 27, 2010

Faux Recovery?

PRINCETON, NJ - OCTOBER 13: Princeton Profess...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Paul Krugman: New York Times: This Is Not a Recovery: this isn’t a recovery, in any sense that matters. And policy makers should be doing everything they can to change that fact...... If unemployment rises for the rest of this year, which seems likely, it won’t matter whether the G.D.P. numbers are slightly positive or slightly negative. ..... All of this is obvious. Yet policy makers are in denial. ...... officials seem loath to admit that the original stimulus was too small..... Obama ..couldn’t pass a supplemental stimulus now. ..... officials could, with considerable justification, place the onus for the non-recovery on Republican obstructionism. But they’ve chosen, instead, to draw smiley faces on a grim picture, convincing nobody. And the likely result in November — big gains for the obstructionists — will paralyze policy for years to come ...... raise its medium-term target for inflation, making it less attractive for businesses to simply sit on their cash .....we’ve already seen the consequences of playing it safe, and waiting for recovery to happen all by itself: it’s landed us in what looks increasingly like a permanent state of stagnation and high unemployment. It’s time to admit that what we have now isn’t a recovery, and do whatever we can to change that situation.

Paul Krugman is one of those guys who I almost always find myself in agreement with. We inhabit the same segment of the political spectrum. And he is an intelligent guy. I felt that even before he won the Nobel Prize.

He makes total sense. Actually his column today totally reflects what I said in a blog post yesterday.

Fears Of A Double Dip Recession Are Very Real

I was of the opinion that the stimulus should have been a trillion dollars. I have also talked in terms of a second stimulus bill. Paul Krugman shares those views.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Nobel Talk: Obama Changed The Global Political Climate

the 44th President of the United States...Bara...

Barack Obama, this past year, has done the political equivalent of curing global warming. That is what he got the Nobel Prize for. It has been well deserved. It has been for work already done. His election has rectified 500 years of world history, or at least has put us on the path to that rectification. His style has been is stark contrast to that of Bush. Bush was a major league polarizing agent. Obama has approached the global stage with humility, and a sense of hope and optimism. It is amazing to me how cool he has been while the biggest economic crisis in 70 years smacked him in his face even before he got elected, long before he took office. It has been gutsy of him to not postpone health care reform. He could easily have postponed that work citing the bad economy. But he stuck to it.

Health care reform is a tough one. All presidents for the past half century have tried and failed the effort. This one just might do it.

Staying true to his agenda in the face of the tough economic turn of things I have found rather impressive.

A lot of his supporters have not learned the difference between an election campaign and governing. How do you support a candidate once he is in office? That is different from when your candidate is running for the office? You have to educate yourself on how the political process works. You have to be respectful of what might be possible.

Middle East peace is the global version of health care reform. Those two are the knotty issues. Obama seems to be making headway on both. I am impressed. He is making progress because his approach is different. Remember when he talked of a new kind of politics? When he talked of bringing people together? Guess what, the guy meant it.

Obama declares swine flu a national emergency Reuters
Obama: Time for big banks to help small businesses The Associated Press
Michelle Obama: 'Party hats' for Bo's first The Swamp
Michelle Obama's gripe: president's tennis game The Associated Press
Michelle Obama Reveals the President's 'Most Annoying Habit' TheInsider.com
Obama, Dodd face supporters, protestors in pricey Connecticut fundraiser Examiner.com
Barack Obama must stop campaigning and start governing Telegraph.co.uk
White House weakened by war on Fox Jamestown Sun