Secretary & the City: Hillary in Abu Dhabi

Posted: January 10, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Hillary Clinton: Her Campaign for All of Us, Middle East, Women's Rights | Tags: , , , , , | 23 Comments

A brief Hillary update… H/T stacyx at secretaryclinton.wordpress.com for the photos of Hillary at the ladies’ talk show Kalam Nawaem.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton poses with the presenters of the Arabic ladies' talk show "Kalam Nawaem"

From the Gray Lady’s reporting on Hillary’s arrival in Abu Dhabi on Sunday for a several-day visit to the Persian Gulf region with multiple stops:

Mrs. Clinton acknowledged that this trip, which includes stops in Dubai, Oman and Qatar, will be devoted at least in part to making amends for these embarrassing disclosures. She spent much of her last trip to Central Asia apologizing for the leaks to aggrieved world leaders.

“I think I will be answering concerns about WikiLeaks until the end of my life, not just the end of my tenure as secretary of state,” she said, joking that she has asked her staff to make jackets like those worn by touring rock bands, with a picture of the globe and the title “The Apology Tour.”

Saudi talk show host Hiba Jamal (L) takes a picture of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) with Lebanese presenter Rania Barghut after recording a special episode. (KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images)

From Greta Van Susteran:

Per ABC VIP pool, clinton speaking at a town hall meeting in Abu Dhabi.

“Look we have extremists in my country. A wonderful, incredibly brave young woman congress member, congresswoman giffords was just shot in our country. We have the same kinds of problems. So rather than standing off from each other, we should work to try to prevent the extremists anywhere from being able to commit violence.“

Hillary takes the high road. It’s how she rolls. She understands we’re all in this together.

Reuters has also picked up on Hillary’s remarks on the AZ shooter and has more details:

Clinton, speaking on Monday in the United Arab Emirates, made the comment in response to a question about the September 11, 2001 attacks, carried out by al Qaeda.

A student at a town hall-style meeting asked why U.S. opinion often blames the entire Arab world for 9/11. Clinton said this was due to misperceptions and the media impact of political violence.

More from further down in the Reuters report:

Clinton, who said she hopes her current trip to the Gulf will help to strengthen U.S. and Arab mutual understanding, said both societies should work to offset the sometimes overly loud voices on the political fringes.

“The extremists and their voices, the crazy voices that sometimes get on the TV, that’s not who we are, that’s not who you are, and what we have to do is get through that and make it clear that that doesn’t represent either American or Arab ideas or opinions,” she said.

This echoes Hillary’s condemnation of the Qu’ran-burning BS back in September, in which she said the religious bigotry driving that behavior:

“doesn’t, in any way, represent America or Americans or American Government or American religious or political leadership. And we are, as you’ve seen in the last few days, speaking out.” –HRC, today at the CFR

There is something so wonderfully assertive and definitive about the way Hillary says it.

Here’s another Hillary headline that grabbed my attention straight away. Read the rest of this entry »

A ray of hope against Hatred and Hype (updated after the fold)

Posted: January 9, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Human Rights, Main Stream Media, Middle East | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Stained glass by Sarah Zirkel, zirkelmosaics.com (Click thumbnail to go to the site)

I often blog about hoping against Hope, but after yesterday’s haunting display of violence, I want to briefly turn to (and then pivot from) the undercurrents that drove that display: Hatred and Hype.

Too much of both has been polluting the dialogue in America for far too long.

That pollution has Consequences. We saw that yesterday.

But on the flip side of Hatred and Hype is authentic hope. From my hoping against Hope essay:

Authentic hope is grounded by healthy skepticism and action, not by a glossy Shepard Fairey poster.

Positive reframing of thought is rethinking things in a way that is constructive rather than destructive. It must be met with a positive reframing of actions — a plan.

Public policy that gestated at the Heritage Foundation before being passed by Democrats is not a plan.

We can’t just close our eyes, imagine a better world, open our eyes to watch as more wealth is transferred to Wall Street, and then expect that better world to somehow spontaneously manifest itself. At the same time, if we close our eyes and see nothing, nothing will ever progress. We need vision to have a plan, and that’s where hope comes in. It has driven humanity against the odds time and time again. Real hope is a call to action.

Real hope is this — “Egypt’s Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, serving as ‘human shields’” (from ahram.org, with Yasmine El-Rashidi reporting):

Muslims turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass Thursday night, offering their bodies, and lives, as “shields” to Egypt’s threatened Christian community

Read the rest of this entry »

Late Night Wonk: Nifty Graphs and such (plus some “new” street photography!)

Posted: January 9, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: U.S. Economy, We are so F'd | Tags: , , , , | 41 Comments

Original photography by Vivian Maier. Click on thumbnail to go to vivianmaier.blogspot.com and see a larger view.

I’m going to start with the Vivian Maier photography link from David Dunlap at the New York Times LENS real quickly because otherwise it will probably get missed! It’s linked to up on memorandum right now, but it’s way at the bottom. Check it out! Here’s a link to more of her discovered work. I’m including a brief thumbnail to encourage you to go look. These are brilliant and thought-provoking images, largely from the fifties and sixties.

Alright, now for the meat of this post. It is a somewhat weighty post for a Saturday night, but there hasn’t been much time to discuss a variety of topics today with all the tragic and distressing news out of AZ understandably dominating the coverage–just look at that archive link to memeorandum, from what the page looked like at 11:30 PM on Sat. It is stunning and devastating all at once.

Anyhow, I doubt most people had the time to click over on the nifty graph pick from my roundup this morning. So I decided to spotlight it.

From Economix — “Comparing Recoveries: Job Changes” (emphasis in bold is mine):

The chart above shows job changes in this recession compared with recent ones, with the black line representing the current downturn. The line has risen since last year, but still has a long way to go before the job market fully recovers to its pre-recession level. Since the downturn began in December 2007, the economy has shed, on net, about 5.2 percent of its nonfarm payroll jobs. And that doesn’t even account for the fact that the working-age population has continued to grow, meaning that if the economy were healthy we should have more jobs today than we had before the recession.

The unemployment rate (measured by a different government survey, and based on how many people are without jobs but are actively looking for work) fell to 9.4 percent in December, from 9.8 percent in November. That might sound like good news — it is, after all, the lowest rate since July 2009 — but part of the reason for the drop was that so many people simply gave up looking for jobs.

Keep reading after the jump, because there’s a youtube worth watching if you haven’t seen it already. Read the rest of this entry »

Breaking: Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Shot in AZ

Posted: January 8, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Breaking News | Tags: , | 65 Comments

The story broke via NPR, but I’m quoting Jay Bookman’s blog at the AJC because the NPR link hasn’t been updated to report her death yet:

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat beginning her third term, has reportedly been shot in the head at a public appearance in a Tucson supermarket.

NPR, citing the local sheriff’s office, reports that GIffords and six others have died.

The gunman is in custody. There is no information available regarding his identity or motive. Other victims reportedly include congressional staff members.

For more information on the shooting and on Giffords, here is the NPR link.

Update: Giffords’ spokesperson says Giffords is alive and in surgery. Via Wapo blogger Felicia Sonmez.

Saturday Reads: the Mona Lisa and War on Poverty edition

Posted: January 8, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: morning reads | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 25 Comments

Photograph: Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis

Good morning, news junkies! My Saturday offerings, hot off the presses…

On this day, January 8th, in 1962, the Mona Lisa was exhibited in Washington, marking the first time it was shown in America. From the link, which goes to the History Channel website: “Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Andre Malraux, the French minister of culture, arranged the loan of the painting from the Louvre Museum in Paris to the United States.”

You may have caught the following story on the Mona Lisa from December, but in case you didn’t… From Tom Kington in the Guardian: “Mona Lisa’s eyes may reveal model’s identity, expert claims… Silvano Vinceti claims initials – possibly the model’s – are discernible in the left eye of the iconic Da Vinci painting.” Stephen Bayley wrote a piece in the UK Telegraph on this story as well called, “Mona Lisa: Leonardo was a genius, let’s leave it at that.“

Another piece of historical trivia for January 8th… In 1964, LBJ declared a “War on Poverty” in the US. (Link takes you to an essay hosted on blackpast.org.)

Who has taken up the call to fight the war on poverty today? Hillary spoke of and to “invisible” Americans when she ran in 2008, but the powers-that-be railroaded her and kept her powerful voice off the domestic stage. John Edwards tainted his “Two Americas” rhetoric on poverty with his “narcissism,” as he himself characterized it. Elizabeth Edwards, who was the genuine advocate for the least of these in that power couple, is no longer with us, though she left behind a body of thoughtful writings and interviews to guide us, much in the way she wrote a journal to her children. The other Liz–Elizabeth Warren–is fighting for us, but her hands appear to be tied.

Every day of this Administration that President Obama fails to govern for the people who elected him, he instead tries to win the approval of the corporations who will never openly adore him enough for all his efforts… because nothing he does for them will ever be enough. More and more, his former supporters are coming to realize that they endorsed an empty suit in 2008, which brings me to my first newsy item. From today’s NY Times: “Obama the Centrist Irks a Liberal Lion… ‘By freezing federal salaries, by talking about deficits, by extending the Bush tax cuts, he’s legitimizing a Republican narrative,’ Mr. Reich says. ‘Why won’t he tell the alternative story? For three decades we’ve cut taxes on the wealthy while real wages stood still.'”

I’ll answer Reich’s question with a question. When will the left understand that Obama fears and thus respects the Republican narrative and does not do the same when it comes to the liberal narrative? The so-called “caving” to Republicans is by design.

Bob Herbert has some good stuff covering the same ground today; I had a hunch he would: “Misery With Plenty of Company…Consider the extremes. President Obama is redesigning his administration to make it even friendlier toward big business and the megabanks, which is to say the rich, who flourish no matter what is going on with the economy in this country. (They flourish even when they’re hard at work destroying the economy.) Meanwhile, we hear not a word — not so much as a peep — about the poor, whose ranks are spreading like a wildfire in a drought.”

Indeed, but I’ll get off my rantbox for now. Here are some other headlines that struck a chord with me throughout the week…

Read the rest of this entry »

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