Political Landscape: August 2009 Archives

When Muammar Qaddafi visits New York for the General Assembly at the United Nations next month, he won't be staying in Manhattan as he'd originally hoped. The Libyan leader had asked to pitch his air-conditioned Bedouin tent in Central Park, but the city hasn't allowed people to live in those manicured grounds since shantytowns dotted its greens back in the 19th Century.

Instead, the de-facto leader of the Islamic northern African nation, who hasn't held an official title for 30 years, will be joining the Bridge and Tunnel crowd, setting up camp in Englewood, New Jersey, just over the George Washington Bridge in Bergen County. And the small but affluent community of 29,000 isn't too pleased about it.

Englewood lost five residents in the September 11th attack in New York City eight years ago, and for many who still live there, Qaddafi's visit means hosting the enemy.

"Qaddafi is a dangerous dictator whose hands are covered with the blood of Americans and our allies," said Steve Rothman, a Congressman who represents the area and once served as Englewood's mayor.

And the current mayor, Michael Wildes, said: "People are infuriated that a financier of terrorism, who in recent days gave a hero's welcome to a convicted terrorist, would be welcomed to our shores, let alone reside in our city."

The only problem is, he can legally do it. The tent will be pitched on the grounds of a Libyan-owned mansion in Englewood. What's more, the controversial Libyan will no doubt enjoy soignee status during his time at the UN: the General Assembly this year will be presided over by Ali Abdesselam Treki, a Libyan politician and former ambassador to the UN.

[Image: Getty Images]

The Obama administration -- mostly because of The Great Recession -- is a profoundly Keynsian one. And, as we have written on this blog, Ayn Rand -- and her disciple, former Fed chief Alan Greenspan -- are on the outs. But what about philosopher Adam Smith? He is getting a re-reading and it is about time. Long considered the avatar of laissez-fair capitalism, the moral underpinnings of his philosophy -- long overlooked -- are gaining attention from high places. In a telling moment on Fareed Zakaria's GPS this week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, ironically, lectured the CNN host on the works of Adam Smith, saying:

If you are familiar with the classical works of Adam Smith, you know that there are two famous works of his. One is 'The Wealth of Nations.' The other is the book on the morality and ethics. And 'The Wealth of Nations' deals more with the invisible hand, that is, there are the market forces. And the other book deals with social equity and justice. And in the other book he wrote, he stressed the importance of playing the regulatory role of the government to fairly distribute the wealth among the people.

If in a country most of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few, then this country can hardly witness harmony and stability.

"Harmony," granted is an organic part of Chinese thinking (as, say, "liberty" is a part of the American political vernacular). Still, Jiabao has a point despite his own country's profound deficits of freedom (Averted Gaze). This Sunday's New York Times Book Review also revisited Smith, noting, ".. as the historian Emma Rothschild has noted, 'The Wealth of Nations' uses the phrase 'invisible hand' precisely once. In the 1,231-page Bantam edition, it appears on Page 572." Only once! It is interesting that the "invisible hand" has, over the years, become an almost inarguable Archimedian point as to how human beings make economic decisions. Did that "invisible hand" simply vanish the Scottish author's other long-forgotten book, Theory of Moral Sentiments?

[Image: Artsentrepeneurship]

The death of Senator Ted Kennedy is a great loss to all those who take seriously humanitarian issues. As we collectively weigh the lion of the Senate's immense contribution to human rights, it might be instructive to focus on his role in the ending of apartheid in South Africa. To many of my generation, the modern day injustice of apartheid in South Africa during the 80s was a political awakening. President Reagan instituted a failed policy of "constructive engagement" with the apartheid regime. The argument at the time was that limited economic sanctions against the totalitarian regime would lead -- eventually -- to slow, manageable change. South Africa, we cannot fail to note, was, at the time, an ally to the administration in the Cold War (totalitarianism be damned!). Ted Kennedy, in the United States Senate, disagreed. He could not overlook the issue of apartheid for the sake of a military alliance against another totalitarian regime. Kennedy favored hard sanctions with real teeth which he believed -- correctly -- would accelerate change on the horn of Africa. Thus the Anti-Apartheid Act of 1985 was born; thus soon after the apartheid regime imploded. From Voice of America:

"While best known for his work on domestic issues, Ted Kennedy was also known for his fight against apartheid in South Africa. He visited that country in 1985 and held an illegal protest outside of Pollsmoor Prison, where Nelson Mandela was being held. Kennedy also pushed for sanctions against South Africa, something the then-Reagan administration had opposed.

... "Well, 1985 was...the height of the state of emergency. The schools were on boycott. Mandela says Kennedy gave the anti-apartheid struggle hope. There were tremendous demonstrations in the streets and there was tremendous violence in the country generally.... His role coming to South Africa was seen to be critical in terms of ... the anti-apartheid developments that were happening," (Jeremy Sarkin, former head of South Africa's Human Rights Committee) said.

Upon his return to the United States, Kennedy pushed for sanctions against the white-ruled government.

"There was a lot of unhappiness with Ronald Reagan's approach to...'constructive engagement' with South Africa. Most anti-apartheid people believed that sanctions was the route to go and that there was a need for much greater pressure," he says.

"South Africans look back at that particular time in terms of where South Africa has come...with a great deal of gratitude in terms of his role that he played in that important struggle," Sarkin said.

Ted Kennedy's visit to South Africa in January 1985 is one of my sharpest political memories. He helped raise political awareness in that issue for many of my generation. The philosopher Blaise Pascale once posited that nature abhors a vacuum. If so, then who will replace Ted Kennedy among the defenders of human rights?

Ted Kennedy, RIP.

[Image: NYTimes]

If you've seen or read Persepolis, the graphic novel-cum-animated film by Marjane Satrapi about the 1979 Iranian revolution and its aftermath in her personal life, you know that Iran has been a hotbed of unrest for decades. Satrapi's story is at once a history lesson and a glimpse into how Iranian politics have affected individuals -- particularly women -- from that country. It's a coming-of-age story set in one of the most turbulent nations in recent history.

Only that "history" isn't exactly past, as was proved last June, when Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was re-elected over his progressive opponent, Hir Hossein Mousavi, and thousands of Iranians took to the streets in (sometimes) violent protest. The dissenters believe the election was rigged, and were demanding a do-over. It quickly became an international incident when President Obama chose, at first, not to get involved, saying he did not want to be seen as "meddling" in Iran's affairs.

After a week or so, he spoke up and admonished the Iranian government for suppressing its people with violence and threats, and Ahmadinejad -- big surprise -- accused Obama of meddling.

At the time of the protests, I remember thinking that Satrapi must be glued to the story from her home in Paris, where she settled in the 1980s. I'm still sure that she was, but so were two young Iranians now living in Shanghai: In June they announced that they would be updating her story with a mini graphic novel about the 2009 election, Persepolis 2.0, with Satrapi's blessing of course. Their sequel has just been released, and they are making it available to anyone with an Internet connection under the instructionally titled URL "SpreadPersepolis.com."

[Image: Persepolis 2.0]

Where is Ted Kennedy? The cacophonous silence on the part of Massachusetts' senior United States Senator in the thick of this health care battle -- an issue, we cannot fail to note, that has shaped nearly a half a century of public service -- is deafening. Of course, the Senator has been ill. Diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor last Spring, Senator Kennedy has been physically unable to do the legwork of championing the reformation of American health care. This has allowed the bill to be shaped by the more conservative members of the Senate Finance Committee, like Max Baucus. It is bitterly ironic that the issue that Kennedy was born to lead the fight over arrives at a moment where his health is at its most fragile.

On Tuesday Ted Kennedy sent a personal appeal to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Massachusetts Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo to change a strongly-worded 2004 state law. That law states that should the Senator step down, Massachusetts voters would then select his successor through a special election, to be held within five months after the vacancy. In the interim -- at this moment of political exigency -- the state would effectively lose one of its two Senate votes. And with bipartisanship evaporating, that single vote could very well mean the difference between a bill's passage and its failure. From Boston.com:

"For almost 47 years, I have had the privilege of representing the people of Massachusetts in the United States Senate,'" Kennedy wrote in his letter.

Serving in the Senate, he wrote, "has been -- and still is -- the greatest honor of my public life.'"

Advisers, including Senator John F. Kerry, began discussions months ago about pushing for a change in the state law.

Kennedy's letter was drafted in early July, when he was writing several other letters, including a private note to the pope that Obama hand-delivered. The letter to state officials was kept secret, not sent until this week.

Kerry said yesterday that Kennedy had been considering this issue since the early summer.

"It is something he talked to me about some time ago,'" he said in an interview.

Kerry rejected any notion that the letter signaled an immediate end to Kennedy's nearly half-century in office, insisting that his colleague has been active in shaping the health care legislation in recent weeks.

"I don't think this signals anything,'" Kerry said. "He has been fully engaged. . . . If [Senate majority leader] Harry Reid required 60 votes tomorrow, Ted Kennedy would be on a plane and be down in the Senate to vote.'"

Ted Kennedy is the most popular politician in the state. His appeal, therefore, will have great influence with the voters. The problem is that in these hugely partisan times, it could also be construed as a partisan, extra-legal appeal. But is it? Ted Kennedy may or may not complete his term. Does he not have the right to have his remaining term as U.S. Senator filled by a like-minded individual, rather than, say, spending five months idle?

What do you think?

[Image: LATimes]

Those raucous town halls -- even in states the President carried -- is indicative of .. something. But what?

It is no secret in American politics that President Obama has a blind side with the bubba vote. For whatever reason -- race, Harvard, personality clash -- Barack Obama is disadvantaged among white working class voters. His cerebral approach is not an organic fit with Bubba. For that reason, and his governmental experience, the President chose Joe Biden, then the least-wealthy man in the United States Senate, as his running mate.

Hillary Clinton's campaign exposed Obama's weakness in places like Appalachia and the rust belt. Her argument at the time was how could then-Senator Obama win in 2008 if he couldn't carry Democrat strongholds suffused with hard working, suds drinking, unionized Americans. Barack Obama never had a problem with minorities or "Starbucks Democrats" -- college students and elites. While some white working class voters -- like those in Pennsylvania -- ultimately saw their economic self-interest and came out for Obama over McCain last November, a vocal percentage have subsequently become teabaggers and town hollerers. If only a civil, well-choreographed beer summit could solve that problem.

Enter: Bill Clinton, formerly the biggest cat in the jungle. The 42nd President's credentials with white working class voters are impeccable. After his triumphant return with Current TV journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, Bill appears poised for prime time, ready for another difficult assignment. Irrelevance does not suit William Jefferson Clinton, who congenitally cannot, cannot go quietly into the night. So why not make use of him domestically, even as his wife serves at the pleasure of the President on the international stage? Tina Brown recently wrote on TheDailyBeast:

If Obama has lost his customary ability to synthesize, perhaps he should turn for help to that great ol' explainer William Jefferson Clinton. This administration's determination not to make the last Democrat's mistakes on health care has been overlearned by Obama and his advisers. Because the received wisdom about Hillarycare is that it was killed by the unilateral arrogance with which it was handed down to Congress, Obama has gone too far in letting warring committees turn his key campaign promise into roadkill.

Surely it's the former president who got it wrong once who has spent the most time and lost the most sleep thinking over how he would do it again. More important, wouldn't Bubba do a better job than the professorial Obama at sweet-talking, arm wrestling, hugging, and head locking such obstructive Blue Dogs as Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross, who used to run a family drugstore just like the one Bill remembers from his years growing up in Hot Springs? Or North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler, who's one of that class of moderate Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer promised not to push around too much when Rahm persuaded them to run for a seat in the House? Obama needs to get himself dirty, and be seen to get dirty.

Clearly, Barack Obama will have to make sure he maintains the independent character of his presidency. Lines would have to be drawn as to who is the President and who is in a strictly advisory role. But Clinton's stature as a former president -- and possible future Secretary General of the United Nations -- makes him politically useful to the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Clinton might even go a long way in narrowing the distance between the perception of Obama as overly cerebral and true working class grit. Bill Clinton can be more than just a special envoy to Haiti to this administration. Could he help President Obama connect -- really connect on a visceral level -- with the people of West Virginia, a state he lost in 2008, but who's self-interest on the health care issue is consonant with those of the White House? Why not?

[Image: Cinie]

Why do people associate thoughts and feelings with tangible items? Objects and Memories is a project that examines this question. This documentary examines the response to items recovered or offered after 9/11.

Objects and Memory examines the response to items recovered or offered after 9/11 and other national tragedies.

"The film uses objects and accounts of people whose lives were affected, interviews with historians and poignant, powerful photographic images. Objects and Memory portrays how a small object can be so significant and can "provoke such powerful memories."

The Objects and memory project seeks to preserve the past and speak to the future. Simple objects like employee id cards, keys, police badges, a fire fighters helmet convey messages and meaning from the events of 9/11.

Objects and Memory also explores the need to keep and offer meaningful objects in the context of other traumatic national events and memorials: the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. These experiences help illustrate how personal and collective memories are triggered by objects that have journeyed through time and space."

Watch Objects and Memory August 17th at 10pm ET on PBS.

Hilary Clinton's trip to Nairobi, Kenya last week wasn't all serious. It also brought a number of surprises: a new hair-do, a dance party, and the request for Chelsea Clinton's hand in marriage from a Kenyan man who says he "developed an interest" in the Clintons' only daughter back in 2001 because she seems to have been "very well brought up."

Earlier this year, Paper magazine's co-founder Kim Hastreiter attended a White House briefing and symposium on cultural activism. The Obama administration made an outreach to over 60 influential artists and cultural activists left out in the cold during the last eight years. But the speakers -- incoming political deputies with law degrees -- did not particularly impress our favorite gatekeeper as taking artists and the artistic process seriously. Artists, unfortunately, are not thought of as strategic assets in our country's national security portfolio. Artists at the White House are instruments of soft power -- charming cultural diversions, soundtracks and background music to the American Presidency, like those famous Pablo Casals concerts at Camelot. Kim Hastreiter argues, however, that artists are "true-blue American workers who deserve to be treated with the same respect as any other American worker." Further, artists -- by virtue of the fact that their craft is intuitive -- can contribute to the struggle against terrorism. From Papermag:

I kept thinking about how after September 11th, every artist I knew agreed that the horror we had witnessed was actually a major piece of performance art that could not possibly have been conceived by a lawyer or a politician, but more likely by a jihadist with a wild imagination and an artist's mind. Even our government's official "9-11 Commission" summarized the attacks as a failure of imagination, and reportedly included a section on "Institutionalizing Imagination,: which called for making imagination a skill in the service of the nation. What many people also don't realize is that within two weeks of the attacks, the Department of Defense actually brought together a large group of American artists and progressive thinkers (including someone I know) to consult in a series of top-secret meetings, at which they were asked to imagine how this (super-creative) enemy of ours might attack us next.

Following our lunch break, we were asked to gather into small groups and ideate about what we had just heard and how art could integrate with and help promote the Obama agenda. Five of us -- myself, Aaron, Duffy, Anne Pasternak (Creative Time), Jonathan Wells (Flux/RESFEST) and Liz Manne (Work in Progress) -- decided to develop the idea of establishing a Department of Alternative Thinking: a think-tank and brain trust made up of the most creative minds in the country, including artists, inventors and visionaries. The DoAT would formally integrate creative brain consultation (performed gratis as a national service) as a required aspect into every detail of governmental decision-making, whether about arts education, the economy, health care, energy and environmental policy, national security, the country's infrastructure or international policy.

The asymmetrical warfare practiced by terrorists is designed to confound traditional strategic planning. Their approach relies heavily on secrecy, stealth and speed, and the avoidance of direct combat (think: cyberwar). Can the unconventional thought-processes of the creative class anticipate and strategically counter threats from fourth generation tactics? It is certainly worth a try, especially considering that Kim's proposal won't cost the taxpayer. Linear and technology-centric thinking did not anticipate the September 11th attacks. Radical groups and weak state actors, for lack of a better phrase, think different. Perhaps the American government should think closely about utilizing the underused natural resource that is its own creatives.

[Image by Duffy Culligan: Papermag]

In case you need convincing that the whole "Birther" movement is crazy, here's a video showing the movement's "leader," Orly Taitz, losing her lid:

Meanwhile, the supposed "certified copy" of Obama's Kenyan birth certificate that Taitz released this weekend has been proven to be a forgery. Yet another fake debunked -- and the Birthers are accusing Obama of foul play?

Behold the conservative commentators: