December, 10 2008, 11:42am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Taruna Godric, 416-916-5202 ext. 414
E-mail: smcommunications@therealnews.com
Obama Stimulus Boosts Markets
Proposed infrastructure plan from Barack Obama stimulates Wall St., but is it a long-term solution?
CHICAGO, Illinois
On Monday Barack Obama announced an infrastructure stimulus package and
a proposed bail out of the three big U.S. automakers that resulted in
an increase in Wall Streets numbers. The president elect said his
administration is going to act swiftly on
a recovery plan and new stimulus package as soon as he is sworn in on
January 20, 2009. This package would include upgrading federal
buildings to make them more
energy efficient, the largest road and highway rebuilding program since
the 1950's, modernizing and upgrading school buildings across the US
and upgrading both broadband internet service and access for all. The
Real News Network spoke to Editor of the Left Business Observer, Doug
Henwood. According
to Henwood, the Obama administration is saying all the right things,
"The combination of long and short terms strategies seems very good,"
although he is not making any delusions about the complexity and
severity of this situation. Henwood sees the need for a major
re-distribution of income, "There are a lot of really complicated
structural problems with the U.S. economy," referring specifically to
the mass concentration of wealth at the top of the ruling economic
class. In order for any effective change to be accomplished, Henwood
says there will need to be a concerted effort by the Obama
administration to ensure a more even distribution of wealth but
"...those are tough (issues) to address..that is a very messy political
thing to do."
In a television appearance on Meet The Press, president
elect Obama acknowledged the severity of the current crisis while
making his priorities known, "This is a big problem and it's going to
get worse and that's why my number one priority coming in, is making
sure that we have an economic recovery plan that is equal to the task."
For complete coverage of this story visit our website: Obama Stimulus Boosts Markets
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Amid Spying Fight, House Passes Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
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While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
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Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
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Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
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Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
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While claiming that President Joe Biden backs "Palestinian aspirations for statehood," one of the cables asserts that "it remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward a political horizon for the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors."
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"We wanted the U.S. to provide a substantive alternative to U.N. recognition. They didn't," one unnamed Palestinian official toldAxios on Wednesday. "We believe full membership in the U.N. for Palestine is way overdue. We have waited more than 12 years since our initial request."
As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
Along with the United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom are permanent members of the UNSC, so they also have veto power.
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Belgium—which is seeking economic sanctions against Israel in response to its genocidal war on Gaza—is expected to join Spain's push for Palestinian statehood after the country's European Union presidency expires in June.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has also claimed to support a so-called "two-state solution"—has alternately boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood.
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PI calls it an "illicit network undermining democracy around the world."
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