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9376. robertjayb - 7/6/2009 5:07:41 AM Oh, Canada! The best place on earth...Macleans)
...we’re wealthier than the Americans, we live longer than the Swedes, we’re more industrious than the Germans, we have more lovers than the Italians, we eat better than the French and we have more TVs than the Japanese.
In so many areas—the economy, health, education, public safety, and living standards—the numbers, it seems, back up what we’ve always quietly believed deep in our patriotic hearts. Sorry to brag, but it looks like Canada is the best place on earth.
Canadians bragging?
9377. wabbit - 8/1/2009 1:03:52 AM RIP Corazon Aquino: Former President Corazon Aquino, who swept away a dictator with a "people power" revolt and then sustained democracy by fighting off seven coup attempts in six years, died on Saturday, her son said. She was 76... 9378. vonKreedon - 9/17/2009 4:08:48 PM US Admin cancels E. European missile shield
I'm hoping that the Admin has extracted some assurances from Russia on supporting sanctions against Iran in return for this. Assuming that they have then this is a good deal, otherwise kind of unwise IMO. 9379. alistairConnor - 9/18/2009 10:45:22 PM I think it confirms the existing "international" perception of Obama as naive and flaky. On its face, it just hands the Russians a huge bargaining chip for free. They will say "thanks" and grin.
Terrible thing to say. I hope there's more to it than that. 9380. arkymalarky - 9/19/2009 3:06:51 AM Indications in news reports about it were that the purpose was to advance the US interests wrt Iran. I have yet to be proven wrong that anyone from anywhere underestimates Obama at their peril. And I don't think most of them do. I think his whole administration plays almost everything close to the vest and he's communicating with people nonstop.
He reminds me of the most brilliant person I ever worked for. He could have been anything with his talents, but he has too much heart. I didn't realize until I'd known him for years how much groundwork and networking and pre-planning he put into absolutely everything he accomplished. He was tireless, regarded and adored by everyone who knew him, and he always had time for you and made you feel like you were a close friend--and it was real. We still stay in touch.
People are incredibly loyal to someone like that and someone like that knows and has the network and connections to pick the right people to work for him. And he does the vast amount of his work under the radar, which is why he's so successful and is often underestimated--because he's open and honest and friendly with everyone and people tend to take each other at face value. Bill Clinton's a lot like that, as well, but his character flaws kept him from accomplishing as much as he could have.. 9381. Wombat - 9/19/2009 3:26:58 AM The star wars installations in Poland And the Czech Republic were a joke from the beginning. The majority polled in both countries didn't want them, the technology is as yet unreliable, and it needlessly antagonised Russia. Good riddance. 9382. arkymalarky - 9/19/2009 4:13:47 AM One of the main points of my post that I neglected to make was that I'd be surprised if leaks come out of the Obama administration and there's likely a lot more going on wrt to any action they take than it seems on the surface. Wombat's post is key. They're not going to toss something of value for no reason. 9383. alistairconnor - 10/6/2009 1:20:02 PM Obama is involved in a complex crisis with Iran and Russia. It's not getting all that much public attention, but it seems to me that it's his first real foreign policy test. If he resolves it well, then he's a safe pair of hands...
The fuss about the hidden Iranian facility is one thing, but there's a lot more going on. The IAEA has concluded that they have all the science required to make a bomb. And Israeli intelligence has concluded that Russian scientists are helping them.
I had been of the opinion that the Iran/bomb thing was an elaborate double bluff rather like Saddam's : no we're not making a bomb; nudge nudge wink wink yes we are (mostly for domestic consumption), but that actually they weren't (this was the US intelligence assessment until recently).
But what it looks like to me is a concerted joint effort by Obama and the Israelis, based on compelling evidence, to get the Iranians to back down, and the Russians to back off.
They seem to be soft-pedalling it, relatively speaking. Any sanctions against Iran require Russian co-operation to be effective; Russia will not wish to be seen to be bullied, they are interested in harrassing the US as much as possible to preserve their sphere of influence, but they are open to bargaining, and have perhaps been persuaded to dump the Iranians, who aren't really a strategic ally for them.
So the relatively conciliatory tone of the Iranians just recently may well represent a fundamental shift, and the start of the untying of the Gordian knot...
If, on the other hand, the Russians perceive Obama as weak, and unwilling to go to war over the issue, then they may push the Iranians to be intransigent. And that, considering the short fuse of the Israelis, could well lead to war with Iran, which would necessarily involve the US. 9384. vonKreedon - 10/9/2009 5:10:15 PM Obama awarded Nobel Peace Prize
What the fucking fuck?!? As much of a travesty as it was to award the prize to Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, at least they had in fact negotiated a peace treaty and ended the US involvement in the Viet-Nam War. What the fucking fuck has Obama done to date to merit this? 9385. Wombat - 10/9/2009 5:29:37 PM It appears to be an aspirational award, and a reflection on how the world status of the United States has revived since the election. I think it is premature. And, of course, anything that pisses off the loony-toonies in this country cannot be all bad... 9386. vonKreedon - 10/9/2009 5:47:15 PM I disagree about pissing off the "loony-toonies" as this actually gives them some measure of apparent legitimacy in the "Obama as faux Messiah" meme that they are so fond of promoting. And yeah, it's inspirational and that's just wrong when there are people and organizations that have been working long and effectively for peace, such as the Cluster Munitions Coalition that was instrumental in getting the munitions banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitions and signed by 107 countries, though NOT the US or Israel. 9387. vonKreedon - 10/9/2009 5:48:49 PM Edit: Actually the CCM treaty banning cluster munitions has not yet banned the munitions as it requires ratification by 30 countries and at this point only 27 of the signatories have ratified the treaty. 9388. vonKreedon - 10/9/2009 5:49:57 PM To edit further: Actually reading my google for comprehension reveals that 21 rather than 27 countries have ratified the treaty. Carry on. 9389. iiibbb - 10/9/2009 9:47:13 PM I like Obama, but if I were him I'd wave off the award. 9390. arkymalarky - 10/10/2009 12:16:04 AM I think he would seem very ingracious and would insult a lot of people around the world by refusing it. He's being appropriately humble so far. Give a great acceptance speech and move on quickly after that. 9391. judithathome - 10/10/2009 4:11:32 PM From a post on another forum:
Listening to some Europeans on the radio yesterday made this all make a LOT more sense to me. They love him for opening discussions with Iran, for his speech in Cairo, and for various other moves he's made toward working with the rest of the world like Kyoto and halting buildup of missiles along Russia's frontier. He's made the USA a citizen of the world again, and the world is happy about that.
9392. alistairconnor - 10/11/2009 11:17:32 AM My immediate reaction was like that of vK... wtff... but I'm thinking as an American there. Everyone I know (Europeans) thinks it's great.
There is a way he can merit it, and I wonder if it isn't already a done deal. It's the whole Iran-Russia-Israel clusterfuck. With the Polish missile screen as a side dish. The revelations about the Iranians' nuclear program, of Russian scientists' involvement, the cancellation of the missile program, Obama's supposed promise to Israel to resolve the Iranian issue... it adds up to a possibility that O has actually conducted a complex multilateral negotiation which has led to the apparent Iranian concessions about uranium enrichment, and that actually it will end up as a deal where they will verifiably renounce the bomb...
If it were so, then the Nobel would not be merely aspirational. 9393. judithathome - 10/11/2009 6:44:52 PM From a poster at RI:
managed to find this:
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.
Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.
For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."
Oslo, October 9, 2009
9394. alistairconnor - 10/14/2009 12:26:49 PM Yeah. Still mostly aspirational. Still, it was the best choice, insofar as it strenghtens his hand, either internationally or domestically or both.
He's not merely getting the award because he's Not GWB (though that's not a bad reason). He's getting it because he's the Anti-GWB. This would probably be more visible if he had not ... succeeded his predecessor.
His vision is a radical break with everyone since at least Carter. And his mental framework and grasp of issues is much better than Carter's was. It remains to be seen whether the means at his disposal are adequate.
The other big test of his mettle will be the Copenhagen conference. If a decent accord comes out of it, it will be through American leadership. He can be the Man Who Saved The World.
Now just watch your fucking congress fuck it up. 9395. alistairConnor - 11/22/2009 12:25:29 PM Nobel, climate etc. continued...
Obama is going to Copenhagen all trussed up like a turkey.
But he seems at least open to the possibility of coming to the table with a tentative, provisional negotiating position...
President Barack Obama is considering setting a provisional target for cutting America's huge greenhouse gas emissions, removing the greatest single obstacle to a landmark global agreement to fight climate change.
That would be something, I suppose.
Though how much credit other world leaders will accord such a position, is something else. If they know anything of US politics, they will be confident that anything he promises will be watered down, dismemberered, and pork-barreled to an inch of its life. There is also the embarassing precedent of Kyoto signed, and never ratified.
Or how about this : the rest of the signs up to binding greenhouse gas reductions, and the biggest economic power gets a free ride for ten years or so while it gets its shit together?
Yeah, that'll work.
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