President Obama's Op-Ed, "Choosing a Better Future in the Americas"

Choosing a Better Future in the Americas
President Barack Obama

As we approach the Summit of the Americas, our hemisphere is faced with a clear choice. We can overcome our shared challenges with a sense of common purpose, or we can stay mired in the old debates of the past. For the sake of all our people, we must choose the future.

Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors. We have been too easily distracted by other priorities, and have failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas. My Administration is committed to the promise of a new day. We will renew and sustain a broader partnership between the United States and the hemisphere on behalf of our common prosperity and our common security.

In advance of the Summit, we have begun to move in a new direction. This week, we amended a Cuba policy that has failed for decades to advance liberty or opportunity for the Cuban people. In particular, the refusal to allow Cuban Americans to visit or provide resources to their families on the island made no sense – particularly after years of economic hardship in Cuba, and the devastating hurricanes that took place last year. Now, that policy has changed.

The U.S.-Cuba relationship is one example of a debate in the Americas that is too often dragged back to the 20th century. To confront our economic crisis, we don’t need a debate about whether to have a rigid, state-run economy or unbridled and unregulated capitalism – we need pragmatic and responsible action that advances our common prosperity. To combat lawlessness and violence, we don’t need a debate about whether to blame right-wing paramilitaries or left-wing insurgents – we need practical cooperation to expand our common security.

We must choose the future over the past, because we know that the future holds enormous opportunities if we work together. That is why leaders from Santiago to Brasilia to Mexico City are focused on a renewed partnership of the Americas that makes progress on fundamental issues like economic recovery, energy, and security.

There is no time to lose. The global economic crisis has hit the Americas hard, particularly our most vulnerable populations. Years of progress in combating poverty and inequality hangs in the balance. The United States is working to advance prosperity in the hemisphere by jumpstarting our own recovery. In doing so, we will help spur trade, investment, remittances, and tourism that provides a broader base for prosperity in the hemisphere.

We also need collective action. At the recent G-20 Summit, the United States pledged to seek nearly half a billion dollars in immediate assistance for vulnerable populations, while working with our G-20 partners to set aside substantial resources to help countries through difficult times. We have called upon the Inter-American Development Bank to maximize lending to restart the flow of credit, and stand ready to examine the needs and capacity of the IDB going forward. And we are working to put in place tough, clear 21st century rules of the road to prevent the abuses that caused the current crisis.

While we confront this crisis, we must build a new foundation for long-term prosperity. One area that holds out enormous promise is energy. Our hemisphere has bountiful natural resources that could make renewable energy plentiful and sustainable, while creating jobs for our people. In the process, we can confront climate change that threatens rising sea levels in the Caribbean, diminishing glaciers in the Andes, and powerful storms on the Gulf Coast of the United States.

Together, we have both the responsibility to act, and the opportunity to leave behind a legacy of greater prosperity and security. That is why I look forward to pursuing a new Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas that will help us learn from one another, share technologies, leverage investment, and maximize our comparative advantage.

Just as we advance our common prosperity, we must advance our common security. Too many in our hemisphere are forced to live in fear. That is why the United States will strongly support respect for the rule of law, better law enforcement, and stronger judicial institutions.

Security for our citizens must be advanced through our commitment to partner with those who are courageously battling drug cartels, gangs and other criminal networks throughout the Americas. Our efforts start at home. By reducing demand for drugs and curtailing the illegal flow of weapons and bulk cash south across our border, we can advance security in the United States and beyond. And going forward, we will sustain a lasting dialogue in the hemisphere to ensure that we are building on best practices, adapting to new threats, and coordinating our efforts.

Finally, the Summit gives every democratically-elected leader in the Americas the opportunity to reaffirm our shared values. Each of our countries has pursued its own democratic journey, but we must be joined together in our commitment to liberty, equality, and human rights. That is why I look forward to the day when every country in the hemisphere can take its seat at the table consistent with the Inter-American Democratic Charter. And just as the United States seeks that goal in reaching out to the Cuban people, we expect all of our friends in the hemisphere to join together in supporting liberty, equality, and human rights for all Cubans.

This Summit offers the opportunity of a new beginning. Advancing prosperity, security and liberty for the people of the Americas depends upon 21st century partnerships, freed from the posturing of the past. That is the leadership and partnership that the United States stands ready to provide.

This Op-Ed appeared in the following international papers:

Trinidad Express (Trinidad & Tobago)
St. Petersburg Times (USA)
Miami Herald (USA)
El Nuevo Herald (USA)

The op-ed also ran in the following GRUPO DE DIARIOS AMÉRICA (GDA) affiliates across the hemisphere:

La Nación (Argentina)
O Globo (Brazil)
El Mercurio (Chile)
El Tiempo (Colombia)
La Nación (Costa Rica)
El Comercio (Ecuador)
El Universal (México)
El Comercio (Perú)
El Nuevo Día (Puerto Rico)
El País (Uruguay)
El Nacional (Venezuela)

Spanish and Portuguese version here

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Obama Administration to declare greenhouse gases a danger to public health

About time we are respecting SCIENCE in this country, AGAIN.

Having received White House backing, the Environmental Protection Agency was expected to declare Friday that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are a significant threat to human health and thus will be listed as pollutants under the Clean Air Act — a policy the Bush administration rejected.

The move could allow the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases, but it's more likely that the Obama administration will use the action to prod Congress to pass regulations around a system to cap and then trade emissions so that they are gradually lowered.

The EPA last month sent its proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget, which reviewed and approved it. By law, the decision includes a public comment period before being finalized.

The EPA concluded that six greenhouse gases should be considered pollutants under the 1970 Clean Air Act, which is already used to curb emissions that cause acid rain, smog and soot. read more here.....

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President Obama and Vice President Biden announces High-Speed Rail System (Video)

Vice-President Biden

President Obama

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Teabaggin' Red Necks, AMEN....(Video)

Janeane Garofalo, from Countdown with Keith Olbermann....

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Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on Bush Administration and Torture (Video)

I agree. Letting folks who destroyed this country off the hook sets a horrible precedent. It means, "I CAN DO IT AGAIN, DOWN THE ROAD."

I am sure Obama wants to walk the middle of the road and have aspirations of 2012, but at what cost? If other countries can indict and put the blast on the former Bush Administration for their actions, why can't we?

This is like blasting the banks, which Obama Administration is doing, but in the back room saying, "I got your back." It is foul and don't muster up.

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Obama releases Bush torture memos

Nothing more to add.

As part of an ongoing court case, the Department of Justice released on Thursday memos issued by the Office of Legal Counsel between 2002 and 2005, detailing techniques used for interrogation of terrorism suspects. In doing so, President Obama declared:

"While I believe strongly in transparency and accountability, I also believe that in a dangerous world, the United States must sometimes carry out intelligence operations and protect information that is classified for purposes of national security. I have already fought for that principle in court and will do so again in the future. However, after consulting with the Attorney General, the Director of National Intelligence, and others, I believe that exceptional circumstances surround these memos and require their release."

Certain aspects of the documents are redacted -- including the names of CIA officials -- but the evidence is of enough weight that Senate Judiciary chairman Patrick Leahy already felt compelled to offer the following statement:

These legal memoranda demonstrate in alarming detail exactly what the Bush administration authorized for "high value detainees" in U.S. custody. The techniques are chilling... We cannot continue to look the other way; we need to understand how these policies were formed if we are to ensure that this can never happen again. This is why my proposal for a Commission of Inquiry is necessary.

Read all the memos here

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Don't let the door knob hitcha', Texas (Video)

Governor Rick Perry want to secede from the Union? Go ahead. See what it did in 1861. No more services, nothin' for Texas. Now I know that the citizens probably don't feel this way, but hey, it is up to them to speak up, especially to get rid of that gas bag. Really, treason talk at its highest.

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Obama in Mexico today

Obama is in Mexico today to kick-off a mini trip which will wind up in the Carribean for the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

Mexico has major problems right now with the war of the drug cartels on the government, so expect a lot of drug talk today, with emphasis on protecting the borders.

In his second big trip abroad since becoming U.S. president, Barack Obama arrives in Mexico on Thursday to show support for the Mexican government's efforts to fight a devastating drug war and boost security along the U.S. border.

Obama, who made his first foray onto the international stage in Europe earlier this month, will discuss energy and the economy with President Felipe Calderon in Mexico City before heading to Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas on Friday.

White House officials played up the symbolism of the stop in Mexico, which is struggling to contain unprecedented criminal violence and combat a drugs war that is spilling over into the United States.

Denis McDonough, the Director of Strategic Communications at the White House's National Security Council, said Obama's visit underscored U.S. support for its southern neighbor at the highest levels.

"It's designed to send a very clear signal to our friends in Mexico City that we have a series of shared challenges as it relates to the economy, as it relates to security, insecurity, the threat of violence, and the impact of drug trafficking on both our countries," he told reporters this week.

The Obama administration is tightening the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent trafficking of U.S. guns to Mexican cartels and is hoping to send Black Hawk helicopters to help Calderon defeat well-armed drug gangs that killed thousands last year.

Obama, a Democrat, hopes to improve relations with Mexico and other Latin American countries during his trip after a deterioration in relations that his advisers blame on Republican former President George W. Bush. read more here.....

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Rush Limbaugh is straight up Un-American, sides with the pirates (Video)

For real. And this is what the Republican Party is about? Shame.

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Right-winged extremists, Are they a threat? (Video)

The intelligence community is a flux. But one thing they don't play around with is potential danger to the President of the United States. Now the right-wingers are grasping for anything, hoping for something to stick. And they now question and doubt a report by Homeland Security and tries to twist it that the Obama Adminstration is after THEM and THEIR RIGHTS. From Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

NO.SHIT.

Do they care about this country? Yes, but only if it grease their palms. Calling it the way I see it.

And this is why you should be concerned

One of the best diaries written by my guy, thereisnospoon

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Tea Bag Parties and the HATE for Obama (Video)

Again, the concerned trolling of the Republican Party for the national debt. Where were they when Bush ran not only the damn DEBT up, but ran this country into the ground? But now they are concerned? PUH-LEAZE. Sell that bag of goods to someone who will LISTEN.


Calls Obama a facist


Fox News caught inflating crowd numbers, why am I not surprised at this?

Again, I am not for ginnin' up and spending a bunch of money we don't have, but until there is a real plan to review from the Republicans on the mess Bush left, they are irrelevant.

And last thought. Republicans, we saw the nastiness and hate during the election and you see where it got you. NOT ELECTED.

'nuff said....

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Obamas and Bidens Tax Returns for 2008

Most of the money for Obama, again, from his book sales. Folks, still buying the Obama books.

The White House released the filings for both the President and the First Lady on Wednesday. Combined, the family brought in an adjusted gross income of $2,656,902, mostly from the sale of the President's books. The Obamas paid $855,323 in federal income tax. And they donated $172,050 - or about 6.5% of their adjusted gross income - to 37 different charities.

Here are the notable donations made

$25,000 to the Catholic Relief Services
$25,000 to the United Negro College Fund.
$5,000 to the American Red Cross
$5,000 to the Boys and Girls Club
$5,000 to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
$1,000 to Columbia University
$5,000 to the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity
$5,000 to St. Leo's Residence for Veterans
$2,000 to the Haiti Foundation of Hope
$5,000 to the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault

View it all, here.

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Mexico's President Calderon on the future of Mexico (Video)

Remember, President Obama is in Mexico City, tomorrow.

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Shock, Awe, Concern Trolling from morning joke on the Homeland Security Report

Yes, the report of right-wing extremism.

Do, the pumper and dumper of morning joke, not believe that there are folks out there like that? Even ex-military? Remember, Timothy McVeigh?

No one wants to be put in a box, but when you have the likes of the Rush Limbaughs, Glenn Becks, Hannity constantly promoting hate against anything the Obama Administration does, it will resonate with some, that I call "bottom feeders".

Do the majority of Americans feel this way? No, but shows like morning joke or morning joe, who sits up there everyday with his concern trolling ease on a report like this does no justice either. Remember, morning joke, it was your kind that was pumping up that Obama had no backbone when it came to the pirates and we saw what happened in that situation. Unless you get the reports on the daily, we all have to read through the lines, but this I do know for sure as everyone else does, there are extreme individuals out there and if they had their way, Obama would not be here, RIGHT NOW.

Anti-immigration: “Rightwing extremist groups’ frustration over a perceived lack of government action on illegal immigration has the potential to incite individuals or small groups toward violence. If such violence were to occur, it likely would be isolated, small-scale, and directed at specific immigration-related targets.”

Recruiting returning vets: “Rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat.”

Gun-related violence: “Heightened interest in legislation for tighter firearms...may be invigorating rightwing extremist activity, specifically the white supremacist and militia movements.”

Gun related violence is on the rise and no one can dispute that, but let's stop with the fake "shock and awe". This is 2009 and the haters are still out there. Read the full report, here.

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Obama Administration to reveal health of top banks

This administration should, especially since we have been dumping money in some of these banks like crazy and they STILL are doing what they want to do with our money with no repercussions in sight.

The administration has decided to reveal some sensitive details of the stress tests now being completed after concluding that keeping many of the findings secret could send investors fleeing from financial institutions rumored to be weakest.

While all of the banks are expected to pass the tests, some are expected to be graded more highly than others. Officials have deliberately left murky just how much they intend to reveal — or to encourage the banks to reveal — about how well they would weather difficult economic conditions over the next two years.

As a result, indicating which banks are most vulnerable still runs some risk of doing what officials hope to avoid.

The decision on handling the stress tests underscores the delicate balancing act by the government, which has spent hundreds of billions to stabilize banks. Despite some signs of improvement in the financial system, many economists remain concerned that banks are still weighed down with toxic assets stemming from the housing downturn.

Until now, the Treasury De-partment has simply said that it will reveal the amounts of any new infusions of capital into banks that regulators judge to be at risk if the economic downturn is prolonged or the economy takes a further dive.

The administration’s hand may have been forced in part by the investment firm Goldman Sachs, which successfully sold $5 billion in new stock on Tuesday and declared that it would use the proceeds and other private capital to repay the $10 billion it accepted from the government in October.

That money came from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, and Goldman’s action was seen as a way of predisclosing to the markets the company’s confidence that it would pass its stress test with flying colors.

Goldman’s action has put pressure on other financial institutions to do the same or risk being judged in far worse shape by investors. The administration feared that details on healthier banks would inevitably leak out, leaving weaker banks exposed to speculation and damaging market rumors, possibly making any further bailouts more costly.

The Goldman move also puts pressure on the administration to decide what conditions will apply to institutions that return their bailout funds. It is unclear if Goldman, for example, will continue to be allowed to benefit from an indirect subsidy effectively worth billions of dollars from a federal government guarantee on its debt, a program the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation adopted last fall when the credit markets froze and it was virtually impossible for companies to raise cash. In ordinary times, regulators do not reveal the results of bank exams or disclose the names of troubled banks for fear of instigating bank runs or market stampedes out of a stock. But as top officials at the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank focused on the intensity with which the markets would look for signals about the nation’s biggest banks at the conclusion of the stress tests, the administration reconsidered its earlier decision to say little. read more here....

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morning joe to Norm Coleman, "It's Over, Norm. It's Over." (Video)

Norm Coleman, the panel has spoken. The Minnesota Supreme Court will speak as the panel. What is next? Supreme Court? But Norm, the votes ARE NOT IN YOUR FAVOR!!! I know you hate losing to a former satirist, comedian, but it is what it is. IT IS OVER. CONCEDE



And I don't quote morning joke much, but hey, he is right on this one.

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