This transition period was supposed to be all about getting a grip on
the financial crisis -- and it looked this week as if Barack Obama has
succeeded sufficiently to take the Thanksgiving holiday off. But on
Wednesday, the president-elect was reminded that he is inheriting
messes far beyond Wall Street.
The word "pirate" has come into the news for the first time in memory, as raiders armed with grenade launchers and grappling hooks take over vessels headed through waters off Somalia for the Suez Canal. Last week, four ships were captured, including a massive Saudi oil tanker, the Sirius Star. More than 3 million barrels of oil pass through those waters every day en route to markets in Europe and the United States. On Thursday, the pirates announced that they wanted $25 million for ransom for the Saudi tanker.
To be honest, Obama, you lost me when you voted for the PATRIOT Act reauthorization in 2006. You lost me again when you voted for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) amendment in 2008. And you lost me every single time you voted for yet more war funding.
Don't even get me started on your vote for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.
I cast a ballot for you in November, but I just can't share in this moment of collective euphoria over your election.
U.S. policy is not about one individual, and no matter how much faith people place in President-elect Barack Obama, the policies he enacts will be fruit of a tree with many roots. Among them: his personal politics and views, the disastrous realities his administration will inherit, and, of course, unpredictable future crises. But the best immediate indicator of what an Obama administration might look like can be found in the people he surrounds himself with and who he appoints to his Cabinet.
November 2008 was the
100-year anniversary of the Congo's conversion from the personal property
of Belgian King Leopold II to a colonial possession of Belgium, itself.
The King's brutal rule, documented in Leopold's Ghost, embarrassed
the Belgians into switching "landlords" in 1908, but did little
to ease the colonial burden on the Congolese people.
Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state
offered by Barack Obama, who is reaching out to former rivals to build
a broad coalition administration, the Guardian has learned.
Obama's
advisers have begun looking into Bill Clinton's foundation, which
distributes millions of dollars to Africa to help with development, to
ensure that there is no conflict of interest. But Democrats do not
believe that the vetting is likely to be a problem.
I was pleased to join 12 past presidents and more than 200 members of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) in signing a
letter to Barack Obama urging him, as president, to respect and support the movements for progressive change in Latin America. We also called on him to dramatically reform U.S. policies toward the region.
Why were we so concerned? For most of the 20th century, the United States was the preponderant power in Latin America; after the end of the Cold War, it was the sole power.
Pulitizer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, student of people's historian Howard Zinn and literary instructor to a generation or so with books such as
The Color Purple, has some advice for Barack Obama as he transitions from candidate to president.
Walker's advice takes the form of an open letter to Obama.
WASHINGTON - The United States military since 2004 has used broad,
secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed
attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.
