Obama Daily Show Interview

This is worth watching!

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ICRC: Millions of Iraqis at risk from dirty water

The International Committee of the Red Cross warns that 40 percent of Iraq’s population of 26 million has no access to clean water and is at risk of waterborne diseases.

A statement Wednesday by the ICRC says that despite some improvement in essential health services, millions of Iraqis still live in households not connected to water networks and have no choice but to drink dirty river water.

To read more…

Iraq Seeking Doctors To Rebuild Health System

One of the main things lost to Iraq over the years of conflict has been its human assets — doctors, engineers and skilled administrators.

The drain on the country’s health system has been especially severe, as thousands of doctors left the country in the face of kidnappings, extortion and murder.

To Listen to this story on NPR

Analyzing Barack Obama’s Worldview

The presidential candidates’ experiences abroad have shaped their world views, and those views offer clues about how they would govern. Both John McCain and Barack Obama have expressed those views in memoirs. Newsweek editor Jon Meacham talks with Steve Inskeep in the first of two conversations about the candidates’ world views, beginning with Obama’s childhood experience in Indonesia as expressed in the books Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope.

Listen to this story on NPR

Washington Post Editorial: An ‘Idiot Wind’

John McCain’s latest attempt to link Barack Obama to extremism

Friday, October 31, 2008; A18

 

WITH THE presidential campaign clock ticking down, Sen. John McCain has suddenly discovered a new boogeyman to link to Sen. Barack Obama: a sometimes controversial but widely respected Middle East scholar named Rashid Khalidi. In the past couple of days, Mr. McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have likened Mr. Khalidi, the director of a Middle East institute at Columbia University, to neo-Nazis; called him “a PLO spokesman”; and suggested that the Los Angeles Times is hiding something sinister by refusing to release a videotape of a 2003 dinner in honor of Mr. Khalidi at which Mr. Obama spoke. Mr. McCain even threw former Weatherman Bill Ayers into the mix, suggesting that the tape might reveal that Mr. Ayers — a terrorist-turned-professor who also has been an Obama acquaintance — was at the dinner.

For the record, Mr. Khalidi is an American born in New York who graduated from Yale a couple of years after George W. Bush. For much of his long academic career, he taught at theUniversity of Chicago, where he and his wife became friends with Barack and Michelle Obama. In the early 1990s, he worked as an adviser to the Palestinian delegation at peace talks in Madrid and Washington sponsored by the first Bush administration. We don’t agree with a lot of what Mr. Khalidi has had to say about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the years, and Mr. Obama has made clear that he doesn’t, either. But to compare the professor to neo-Nazis — or even to Mr. Ayers — is a vile smear.

Perhaps unsurprising for a member of academia, Mr. Khalidi holds complex views. In an article published this year in the Nation magazine, he scathingly denounced Israeli practices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and U.S. Middle East policy but also condemned Palestinians for failing to embrace a nonviolent strategy. He said that the two-state solution favored by the Bush administration (and Mr. Obama) was “deeply flawed” but conceded there were also “flaws in the alternatives.” Listening to Mr. Khalidi can be challenging — as Mr. Obama put it in the dinner toast recorded on the 2003 tape and reported by the Times in a detailed account of the event last April, he “offers constant reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases.”

It’s fair to question why Mr. Obama felt as comfortable as he apparently did during his Chicago days in the company of men whose views diverge sharply from what the presidential candidate espouses. Our sense is that Mr. Obama is a man of considerable intellectual curiosity who can hear out a smart, if militant, advocate for the Palestinians without compromising his own position. To suggest, as Mr. McCain has, that there is something reprehensible about associating with Mr. Khalidi is itself condemnable — especially during a campaign in which Arab ancestry has been the subject of insults. To further argue that the Times, which obtained the tape from a source in exchange for a promise not to publicly release it, is trying to hide something is simply ludicrous, as Mr. McCain surely knows.

Which reminds us: We did ask Mr. Khalidi whether he wanted to respond to the campaign charges against him. He answered, via e-mail, that “I will stick to my policy of letting this idiot wind blow over.” That’s good advice for anyone still listening to the McCain campaign’s increasingly reckless ad hominem attacks. Sadly, that wind is likely to keep blowing for four more days.

Slowdown in Persian Gulf Reverberates in Middle East

Suddenly, that lifeline appears frayed, dangerously so for countries likeEgypt and Jordan, as the energy-rich nations find themselves pulled into the global financial crisis and undermined by dropping oil prices. Across the Persian Gulf, stock markets are down, causing panic among investors. Even in the boomtown of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the once-mighty real estate market has cooled as access to credit has tightened.

Read this article in today’s New York Times

What America Could Have Spent the Iraq War Funding On

DUNCAN MANSFIELD | October 27, 2008

 When the Sunday morning political pundits began talking last year about the tab for the war in Iraq hitting $1 trillion, Rob Simpson sprang from his sofa in indignation.

“Why aren’t people outraged about this? Why aren’t we hearing about it?” Simpson said. And then it came to him: “Nobody knows what a trillion dollars is.”

The amount _ $1,000,000,000,000 _ was just too big to comprehend.

So Simpson, 51, decided to embark “on an unusual but intriguing research project” to put the dollars and cents of the war into perspective. He hired some assistants and spent 12 months immersed in economic data and crunching numbers.

The result: a slim but heavily annotated paperback released, “What We Could Have Done With the Money: 50 Ways to Spend the Trillion Dollars We’ve Spent on Iraq.”

Simpson is no geopolitical, macro-economic, inside-the-Beltway expert. He’s an armchair analyst and creative director for an advertising agency, a former radio announcer and music critic in Ontario and a one-time voiceover actor.

His alternative spending choices reflect his curiosity and wit.

He calculates $1 trillion could pave the entire U.S. interstate highway system with gold _ 23.5-karat gold leaf. It could buy every person on the planet an iPod. It could give every high school student in the United States a free college education. It could pay off every American’s credit card. It could buy a Buick for every senior citizen still driving in the United States.

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“As I started exploring, I was really taken aback by some of the things that can be done, both the absurd and the practical,” Simpson said.

America could the double the 663,000 cops on the beat for 32 years. It could buy 16.6 million Habitat for Humanity houses, enough for 43 million Americans.

Now imagine investing that $1 trillion in the stock market _ perhaps a riskier proposition today than when Simpson finished the book _ to make it grow and last longer. He used an accepted long-term return on investment of 9 percent annually, with compounding interest.

The investment approach could pay for 1.9 million additional teachers for America’s classrooms, retrain 4 million workers a year or lay a foundation for paying Social Security benefits in 65 years to every child born in the United States, beginning today.

It’s too recent to make Simpson’s list, but that $1 trillion could also have paid for the Bush administration’s financial bailout plan, with $300 billion to spare. It might not be enough, however, to pay for the war in Iraq. Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz has recently upped his estimate of the war’s cost to $3 trillion.

Simpson created a Web site companion to his book that lets you go virtual shopping with a $1 trillion credit card. Choices range from buying sports franchises to theme parks, from helping disabled veterans to polar bears.

Click on Air Force One, the president’s $325 million airplane. The program asks: “Quantity?”

“At one point we couldn’t find anybody who actually stuck with it long enough to spend $1 trillion,” Simpson said. “It will wear you out.”

From the Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com)

For Some Americans, Housing Crisis Stress Is Unbearable

It’s only natural to worry as the value of homes and investments falls. But the financial crisis is hitting some people harder than others. In California, where the housing meltdown started early, some of the financial losses are turning into human tragedies.

Listen to this story on National Public Radio…

The Endorsement From Hell-NYTIMES

NYTIMES columnist Nicholas Kristof writes about Al Qeida’s endorseent of John McCain…

John McCain isn’t boasting about a new endorsement, one of the very, very few he has received from overseas. It came a few days ago:

“Al Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,” read a commentary on a password-protected Islamist Web site that is closely linked to Al Qaeda and often disseminates the group’s propaganda.

Read the column here….

New President To Redefine Democracy-Spreading

 The war in Iraq may have turned Americans off from the idea of spreading democracy around the world, but don’t write off the freedom agenda just yet. Both presidential candidates have shown some interest in promoting democratic values and there are plenty of others making the case.

James Traub, a New York Times Magazine contributor, released a book called The Freedom Agenda: Why America Must Spread Democracy (Just Not the Way George Bush Did). Speaking at the Brookings Institution this week, Traub said he is worried that Americans don’t believe any more in a value-driven foreign policy.

Listen to this story on National Public Radio…

Jordan ranked 128th in Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2008

26 October 2008
AMMAN – Jordan ranked 128th in the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders’ (RWB) Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2008 issued last week. 

 

The Kingdom’s position fell from 122 out of 169 countries last year, to 128 out of 173 nations in 2008, while in 2006, the index ranked Jordan 109 out of 186 countries.

Read more

Water conference in Jordan canceled due to ‘tensions’ in ME

A conference of European and Mediterranean nations to discuss water issues has been canceled due to tension in the Middle East, AFP reported Saturday evening.

The conference, which was due to be held on the banks of the Dead Sea in Jordan, “was postponed at the request of Jordan for reasons to do with the tensions between the Arab League and Israel,” the environment ministry in France, which co-chairs with Egypt the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) was quoted as saying.

The forum aimed to put together a long-term strategy for water in the Mediterraneanregion.

Perceptions of Palin Grow Increasingly Negative, Poll Says

A majority of likely voters in a new Washington Post-ABC Newsnational poll now have unfavorable views of the Alaska governor, most still doubt her presidential qualifications and there is an even split on whether she “gets it,” a perception that had been a key component of her initial appeal.

Read more…

Are the Polls Accurate?

Reading them right is more art than science.

Can we trust the polls this year? That’s a question many people have been asking as we approach the end of this long, long presidential campaign. As a recovering pollster and continuing poll consumer, my answer is yes — with qualifications.

Read the article here in the Wall Street Journal.

Online Documentary: Torturing Democracy

You can watch this documentary online . It will air on PBS probably early next year. 

When the publication of the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq made prisoner abuse an international controversy in April, 2004, both the National Security Archive and Washington Media Associates were already pursuing the story.

Award-winning producer Sherry Jones was in the final stages of editing the first full-length television investigation of the Administration’s detention and interrogation policies, with a focus on the detention camp at Guantanamo. That ABC news special, “Peter Jennings Reporting: Guantanamo” aired on June 25, 2004.

The Archive had just published a reference collection of more than 1500 documents on U.S. counter-terrorism policy – from the earliest plane hijacking crises in 1968 through the war in Afghanistan in 2002 – and had filed hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests for Bush administration documents on terrorism and detention policies.

CC Goldwater:Why McCain Has Lost Our Vote

Being Barry Goldwater’s granddaughter and living in Arizona, one would assume that I would be voting for our state’s senator, John McCain. I am still struck by certain ‘dyed in the wool’ Republicans who are on the fence this election, as it seems like a no-brainer to me.

Read more

Jordan detains poet for “religious crime”

This is from today’s article by my friend and journalist Suha Ma’ayeh.

A Jordanian poet, whose writings have drawn the ire of the country’s religious establishment over the interpretation of Quranic verses cited in his book, was detained by the general prosecutor for two weeks on charges of defaming and insulting religion.

An editor at the daily newspaper Arab Elyawm, where Mr Samhan works, said the paper had terminated his contract. 

Premier reaffirms Jordan’s gov’t support for JRTVC

So…whatever happened to Al Ghad TV? Anyone?

Restore [JRTVC's ] former status as one of the best media institutions in the Arab world.

Really?

He [PM] stressed that the government’s support for the corporation should be coupled with cooperation and keenness by all JRTVC staff to upgrade their performance, especially in light of the strong competition with other satellite channels, and restore its former status as one of the best media institutions in the Arab world.

The premier also referred to a strategy the JRTVC board is working on to upgrade its output and action plans, emphasising that the strategy should be applicable and include projects with specific objectives and clear costs.

Dahabi added that he will follow up on the implementation of the strategy with the JRTVC chairman.

Judeh, for his part, referred to the Royal directives on the need to supply official media outlets with trained staff and equip them with the required capabilities.

The minister reaffirmed the corporation’s keenness to restore its status in drama production, as when Jordanian series were widely broadcast across the Arab world.

Judeh said the board of directors is working on a clear strategy for JRTVC operations during the coming stage, noting that viewers will witness a positive change in the form and content of its programmes during the next few months.

The strategy, he noted, will also enhance the corporation’s revenues.

Read it all here….

State of the Press in Jordan?

What’s the latest talk on media development in Jordan?

Former information minister Ibrahim Ezzeddine, who moderated the seminar, said journalism development requires a high degree of professionalism and amendments to laws governing the press, stressing that public and private media institutions are also required to allow a wider margin of press freedom.

Meanwhile, columnist Fahed Kheitan said the media performance in any given country reflects the political life in that country, noting that the local media enjoys an advanced position in certain cases. He added, however, that the freedom of the press in Jordan is still seeing no progress.

“The media performance nowadays is not the same as it used to be 10 years ago. The means of control and supervision on the media have differed, particularly with the appearance of the electronic media,” he added, noting that any deficiency in the media performance is due to the reluctance of governments and decision makers in building a genuine democratic and political life.

Blaming the Jordan Press Association (JPA) for not doing its job properly in the past, columnist Kheitan said the JPA can play a larger role by changing its membership regulations to include all those who work in the media sector. He added that the association should also activate its disciplinary councils against those who do not abide by its regulations.

Here’s the article from the Jordan Times.

The Man Who Knows Too Much

He exposed the My Lai massacre, revealed Nixon’s secret bombing of Cambodia and has hounded Bush and Cheney over the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib… No wonder the Republicans describe Seymour Hersh as ‘the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist’. Rachel Cooke meets the most-feared investigative reporter in Washington.

Here’s the profile article…

How John McCain came to pick Sarah Palin

Here’s a great New Yorker piece by Jane Mayer on how John McCain decided to pick Sarah Palin.

Upon being elected governor, Palin began developing relationships with Washington insiders, who later championed the idea of putting her on the 2008 ticket. “There’s some political opportunism on her part,” Bitney said. For years, “she’s had D.C. in mind.” He added, “She’s not interested in being on the junior-varsity team.”

During her gubernatorial campaign, Bitney said, he began predicting to Palin that she would make the short list of Republican Vice-Presidential prospects. “She had the biography, I told her, to be a contender,” he recalled. At first, Palin only laughed. But within a few months of being sworn in she and others in her circle noticed that a blogger named Adam Brickley had started a movement to draft her as Vice-President. Palin also learned that a number of prominent conservative pundits would soon be passing through Juneau, on cruises sponsored by right-leaning political magazines. She invited these insiders to the governor’s mansion, and even led some of them on a helicopter tour.

The List: The World’s Ugliest Elections

Here’s Foreign Policy’s list of the world’s ugliest elections. Interesting read.

Video: Coverage CAN be too in-depth

CNN is best political team on television, and nobody understands what the hell they’re talking about. The cabler’s coverage of all four debates was accessorized by unnecessary charts, graphs, bells, whistles and images. These widgets track audience reaction to the candidates, as well as real-time pundit analysis.

This is a very funny video!

Video: The 2008 Presidential Debate

The third and last debate of the 2008 Presidential race at Hofstra University

Video: Olbermann on the Current State of the US

Here it is. Good stuff from Olbermann.

As U.S. Gains in Iraq, Rebels Go to Afghanistan

The New York Times reported today that the fight is moving from Iraq to Afghanistan. American military successes in Iraq have prompted growing numbers of well-trained “foreign fighters” to join the insurgency in Afghanistan instead, the Afghan defense minister said on Tuesday.

To read more…

At Indian Call Centers, Another View of U.S

Here’s a very interesting article published today in the Washington Post.

As Economy Falters, Debt Collectors Hear Sobering Stories From the Land of Plenty .

“Lately, 25-year-old Americans are telling me that they are declaring themselves bankrupt,” said Chaturvedi, raising her eyebrows in shock. “These days the situation is so emotional, so fragile. We have to have so much empathy and patience.“

On the State of the Polls

The latest poll numbers have Barack Obama in a double-digit lead over John McCain. But there are no guarantees when the election rolls around. Senior Washington Editor Ron Elving explains why poll numbers can fluctuate as voter opinions 

Listen to the this story on National Public Radio

Video: Campaign of Fear Against Obama

For the past few weeks John McCain and Sarah Palin have been running a systematic campaign of fear against Barack Obama

Sunday Show Roundup

“The Politico guys,” Rove’s top disciple and how our press corps works

Tim Griffin has long been one of Karl Rove’s closest “protégés” and has been at the epicenter of many of the most significant episodes of Republican sleaze over the last decade — in particular, he has been a vital tool in the naked politicization of our justice system.  Lately, Griffin’s relationship with Politico and its McCain campaign reporter, Jonathan Martin, has grown in numerous ways, and the benefits for both are becoming increasingly apparent, in the standard tawdry ways that typify how our press corps functions. 

To read more….

Copycat Kidnappings Spreading In Iraq

500 percent increase in foreigners taken hostage around the world as militants adopt the methods of the most violent figures in the Iraq insurgency.

The 1,079 foreign kidnappings since 2001 for which the hostage takers are unknown. That smaller number is drawn from public sources and includes cases in which the details of the disappearance are unverified.

To read more…

Reaching for a Higher Profile, Abu Dhabi Opens a Hub for Western Media

Is the Media Moving to the Middle East?

On Sunday, a spate of companies announced that they were setting up shop in Abu Dhabi, an island city that is the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The companies are CNN, the book publishers HarperCollins and Random House, the British Broadcasting Corporation, The Financial Times and the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charity arm of the financial news giant Thomson Reuters.

Officials from these companies joined local officials in Abu Dhabi on Sunday to announce they would take space on a new 200,000-square-meter campus, called the Abu Dhabi Media Zone, that the government is building for foreign media companies.

To read more…

Books: “Txtng: The Gr8 Db8”

This is an amusing article although I don’t agree with it. I see many advantages to texting….

Is texting bringing us closer to the end of life as we currently tolerate it?

In some respects, texting is a giant leap backward in the science of communication. It’s more efficient than semaphore, maybe, but how much more efficient is it than Morse code? With Morse code, to make an “s” you needed only three key presses. Sending a text message with a numeric keypad feels primitive and improvisational—like the way prisoners speak to each other by tapping on the walls of their cells.

To read more….

Presidential debate a feather in Hofstra’s cap, but at big cost

Go Hofstra! (My undergrad school)! 

 

BY CELESTE KATZ Sunday, October 12th 

Outside of scoring a Nobel Prize or having a basketball team play Cinderella in the NCAA Tournament, the fastest way for a college to leap onto the national stage is to host a presidential debate.

Hofstra University in Hempstead, L.I., will do just that on Wednesday.

It ain’t cheap, though.

University President Stuart Rabinowitz estimates the debate is running Hofstra $3.5 million, and “not all the bills are in.”

It cost $7,500 just to apply.

“You have to pay $1.35 million to the [Presidential Debate] Commission in order to be a host … And the rest of it [are] wiring issues and infrastructure things and constructing stages in the arena and camera platforms and running in tons of power outlets and computer outlets and wiring and so on.”

Rabinowitz’s quest to bring a presidential debate to Hofstra began three years ago, when a former commander in chief spoke on campus.

As Bill Clinton gave “an impassioned defense” of his presidency to an audience of 5,200, Rabinowitz said, “I never saw our students paying such rapt attention … I thought to myself, ‘You know, this is the best way to educate them about the current issues of the day.’

“I thought it was just natural to come at it from the other end – which was before the President was elected,” he said.

Although the debate has been a transformational experience for Hofstra, precious few students will actually get to witness the moment in person.

Two-thirds of all the tickets go to the candidates. The commission parcels out the remainder, and Rabinowitz estimates that 200 spots, at most, will be available to Hofstra. About 6,800 students have entered a ticket lottery.

To read more…

The Palin Factor

This is an article I wrote a month ago, published in Living Well magazine when Palin became a factor. I hope I’ll have a better quality copy up on this blog soon. 

By Rana F. Sweis

 

AMMAN// In the beginning, his story captivated the world. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s sense of idealism prevailed in America. His father was raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats. He went to school in a tin-roof shack. While studying in the US, he met Obama’s mother, a white woman from Kansas.

Then came a surprise: Sarah Palin. She was a mother of five, Governor of Alaska and a woman. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee’s choice of Palin for Vice President changed the dynamics of the 2008 Presidential campaign. American elections this year never fail to surprise—or excite voters and viewers alike.

Obama ran on the slogan for change. John McCain ran on the experience ticket. During the summer months, polls showed change triumphed experience. The McCain camp heeded to the more popular message and Palin was chosen. It’s up to Obama’s campaign to turn things around in his favor. Obama has been under pressure from his Democratic Party to attack McCain, who has taken a lead in the polls in September.

Today Americans are pondering the meaning of change: is it the type of change that will improve Washington or worsen it? Is it the type of change that will lead America towards more non-interventionism–a policy of nonparticipation in foreign political relations–or inclusion and credibility on the world stage? Indeed, the first casualty of US actions against Iraq and Afghanistan has been eroding domestic confidence and support for humanitarian intervention.

There are those that say policy will triumph the politics of identity. Let us not forget 1984. Walter Mondale chose New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate. They were up against Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan. The majority of American women voted for Reagan, despite the fact that she was a mom and had three children. The focus groups indicated that she intimidated women at the time. But what focus groups are showing today is that women are attracted to Palin. In July, McCain led Obama among White women by 44 to 39, according to a NEWSWEEK poll. Now his lead is 53 to 37. One in three White women says she is more likely to vote for McCain since Palin was chosen as his running mate. Some Democratic women are threatening to defect to the Republican Party—just because Palin is a woman. However, contradictions are abundant: Palin advocates abstinence yet her unmarried 17-year old daughter is pregnant. McCain criticizes Obama for his lack of political experience, yet Palin has never met a foreign head of state. Palin proclaims she is a reformer yet when Palin was inaugurated as governor in Alaska, she surrounded herself with people she has known since grade school and friends.

Both Obama and McCain are competing for working-class white women, a group that could have a great impact in States that will likely decide the election. In September, Obama held events that included themes such as, “Women for the Change We Need,” in order to connect with women. I recently received an e-mail from a woman in New York who has created a blog called, Older White Women for Obama. In it she writes:

I began this post because I am disgusted with the GOP [Republicans] claiming that older white women support McCain and his pretty-face-empty-head sidekick, Palin. All of my friends are for Obama; even my mother’s friends, a generation older, are for Obama. We are all disgusted by the GOP’s destruction of the American economy and credibility in the world.

 

Older white women speak out!

Nevertheless, Obama will continue to face the elephant in the room- race. Some people have accused him of being too liberal, too young and too exotic. According to TIME, one of every four who voted for Hillary Clinton as their choice of the Democratic Presidential nominee actually admitted to pollsters that race was a factor in their vote. Even in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio the figure was one in ten. Certainly, his running mate, Biden, has not received nearly the same media attention as Palin.

The Media Impact

Many people agree traditional political campaigns have been changing the course of US elections, as we know them. Political advertising, e-mails, bogs and ‘embedded’ campaign reporters (such as the ones who traveled with Obama on his visit to the Middle East and Europe) have proved to be a determining factor in the fate of this election. Words like presentation, image, character and background have become determining factors when electing a president.

Interest groups, corporations including corporate advocacy advertising spend a vast amount of money to sway public opinion and influence the legislative and policy decisions. Over the years, negative campaigning, most notably negative advertising, is considered by many as misleading. Since television time is money, the time slot given for political advertising seems inadequate to raise important issues.

Therefore, political advertising relies on emotional images like soldiers in combat, images of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, DC. Television seems to no longer be used a means to deliver a message, but rather as a form of attacking a person running for office. Studies show that even if longer segments were presented on television, where political issues—education, healthcare, and foreign policy—were discussed in a more in-depth manner, Americans tend not to watch it. Another factor that technology and negative campaigning has contributed to is the polarization of the American people. Campaign managers and the media tend to simplify issues. This has led to Americans feeling that they must adhere to one Party or another (Republican or Democrat). The most effective technique of challenging this is for the public to be informed enough to realize, scrutinize, and act.

This race is not over. The US is a divided nation facing economic challenges—a rise in unemployment, home foreclosures and two wars. Indeed, the winner of this election will take it all, including the myriad of challenges and quagmires. 

It’s Down to Hope vs. Fear

By E. J. Dionne
WASHINGTON — Hope versus fear, new versus old: Barack Obama and John McCain have placed their bets. These are the terms on which the 2008 presidential campaign will be decided.

Click here to read more….

The Fear Factor and Racism

This is awful!

Next President Likely To Stay Course On Diplomacy

An interesting perspective on the notion that we will not see a big change in foreign policy no matter who wins in November.

On the campaign trail, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain have clashed on foreign policy issues from North Korea to Iran. But despite all the talk of change, the next president will likely provide more continuity on foreign policy than there was the last time the White House changed hands.

New US base in Jordan to train Iraqis and Palestinians

Amman, 10 Oct. (AKI) – The United States military has recently built a new military base in Jordan where Iraqi and Palestinian Authority security personnel will be trained, according to pan-Arab daily Al-Quds al-Arabi.
The base is very large and besides training Iraqi soldiers in anti-insurgency warfare, it reportedly contains a simulated refugee camp to train Palestinian Authority forces, an unnamed Palestinian source told the daily.

Between 500 and 600 armed forces personnel are expected to take part in special anti-militant courses and could be deployed as soon as Israel agrees to handover security in the West Bank town of Jenin to the Palestinian Authority.

The training should take place in the desert west of the Jordanian capital, Amman, and the trainers are expected to include senior military officials from the Jordanian and US armies.

Improving Teaching in Jordan

Here’s an article on improving education in Jordan. I am glad that faculty members and consultants from the US were sent to Jordan to assist. It’s important to note that despite Jordan’s high literacy rates, I am convinved that the quality of education still needs a lot of work, so this visit is a positive step.

In August, Teachers College sent a delegation of faculty members and consultants to Amman, Jordan to assist Jordan’s Ministry of Education in making mass-scale improvements to the nation’s public school system. Members of the Teachers College delegation led a five-day retreat to design pre-employment training for Jordan’s newly hired public school teachers.

In addition, several visiting faculty members stayed on to teach Jordanian public school teachers a three-week course in the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).

Will Saturday Night Live Affect White House Race?

Here’s a story aired on National Public Radio regarding the impact and humor of NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

Ratings for SNL have hit highs not experienced for years, and the show’s influence can be seen throughout this presidential race. NBC is giving SNL three primetime specials geared toward the election — the first of which will air Thursday night.

You will also find videos there of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin as well as others. Brilliant stuff, really.

Jordanians Weigh in On Obama’s Candidacy

Here’s a feature I wrote regading Jordanian opinion and Obama. 

It was featured in 7iber.com

Current Article

Oct 9, 2008 | 

Written By: Rana F. Sweis

7iberDotCom — On a bustling street in downtown Amman, Farah Al Sayyad, 24, stares at a magazine showing American democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama walking up a flight of stairs while gazing at the sky.

“For me it’s not about if he will be good or great,” she says. “It’s about not doing something negative to us, like waging another war in the region.”

Suddenly her friend Eman Buraile, 23, turns around. “Wake up, Farah!” she interrupts. “I don’t really know who Obama is, but they are all the same.”

Some middle-class Jordanians say they do not know Obama well enough to judge his character or intentions. Yet, when they watch television or read translated texts of his speeches, they have no problem envisioning him in a character role.

Read the rest of this article…

Jordanian Family Kidnapped in Beirut

October 6, 2008 (UPI)–A Jordanian woman and her three daughters have been kidnapped in Beirut, a Jordanian Foreign Ministry source told Kuwait news agency, KUNA. KUNA said an unnamed source told the Jordanian al-Ghad daily that the kidnapping of the woman and her daughters, ages 3, 5 and 7, happened Thursday near a Beirut hotel as they were waiting in a car for their father. The source said an unidentified person got into the car and commandeered it, taking the Jordanian family to an unknown destination as the father was in the hotel. You can read a more in-depth article in the Jordanian Al Ghad newspaper.

Movie Review: Body of Lies

Here’s an excellent movie review published today in the New Yorker of the much anticipated political thriller, Body of Lies starring Russell Crow and Leonardo DiCaprio.

SNL: Palin/Biden Debate

Tina Fey is AMAZING! Hilarious!

Here’s the link to the full Saturday Night Live Debate.

U.S. to Fund Pro-American Publicity in Iraqi Media

Here’s an article in the Washington Post that is a must-read!

The Defense Department will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to “engage and inspire” the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government.

The new contracts — awarded last week to four companies — will expand and consolidate what the U.S. military calls “information/psychological operations” in Iraq far into the future, even as violence appears to be abating and U.S. troops have begun drawing down.

High fodder prices threaten livelihoods in Jordan

Here’s an article published in the Middle East Online:

High fodder prices, drought and government policies have caused a sharp drop in livestock numbers in Jordan in the past year, affecting livelihoods and meat prices, agriculture experts say.

 

“Many livestock breeders slaughtered their animals after the government’s decision last year to slash fodder subsidies to livestock breeders,” Ahmad al-Faour, president of the Jordan Farmers’ Union (JFU), told IRIN.

Books: King Hussein

This book review published today in the New York Times, takes a close look at the life of King Hussein through two biographies, Lion of Jordan and  King Hussein of Jordan, a Political Life.

King Hussein of Jordan (1935-99)was the great survivor of Middle East politics. For almost half a century until his death in 1999 he balanced delicately between the Arab world, Israel and the United States. There were few important events in the region in which he did not play a role…

Video: VP Palin/McCain Debate

October 02, 2008

Tonight was the vice presidential debate between Democratic nominee Sen. Joe Biden and Republican nominee Gov. Sarah Palin. The debate was held at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri. It was moderated by Gwen Ifill of PBS.

Words of Wisdom

Here are excerpts of an article published in the UK Times on words of wisdom by senior citizens:

Here are some excerpts from their words of wisdom:

Willie Nelson

“Necessity is still the mother of invention, and if we start really needing energy, we’ll get it. We have solar, we’ve got water, we’ve got all kinds of things that we can use, and eventually people will start realising that there are alternative energies and you don’t have to go around the world starting wars over oil.
If everyone just takes care of their own area then we won’t have any problems. Be here. Be present. Wherever you are, be there. And look around you and see what needs to be changed.”

 

Jane Goodall

“We’ve been very arrogant in assuming that there’s this sharp line dividing us from the rest of the animal kingdom, and we need to realise that we are not the only beings on this planet with personalities, minds and, above all, feelings and emotions. We need to be a little more respectful.”

Dame Judi Dench

“The key to a good relationship is absolutely, undoubtedly: don’t take the person for granted. Don’t ever think that they’re going to come back to you just because you happen to be married. Always make the effort; and hopefully don’t make the effort recognisably.”

Clint Eastwood

“Take your profession seriously; don’t take yourself seriously. Don’t take yourself seriously in the process, because you really only matter to a certain degree in the whole circus out here. If a person is confident enough in the way they feel, whether it’s an art form or whether it’s just in life, it comes off – you don’t have anything to prove; you can just be what you are.”

Madeleine Albright

“Being a parent is one of the most difficult and demanding and rewarding things that you can possibly be; you really are responsible for the day-to-day upbringing of your child. With grandkids, you can just reward. It’s just a perfect relationship.
It’s something new, but exercise is very important to my well-being. And I now leg-press over 400lb.”

Palin/Biden Debate Tonight

The Huffington Post reports:

Intense Anticipation: The San Francisco Chronicle says tonight’s debate is “must-see TV – even if you loathe politics - for its sheer unpredictability.” Both candidates “display a marked tendency to set off America’s collective gaffe-o-meter,” the Hartford Courant writes, producing a “ghoulish fascination – like waiting for a crash at a NASCAR race – with tonight’s debate.” Politico notes that media figures expect it to be a ratings juggernaut, likely overtaking those of the first presidential debate.

Serious Doubts: The AP reported Thursday morning that voters harbor “serious doubts” about Palin’s readiness. Fred Thompson defended her on CBS’ Early Show:

“People will have a chance to see her from beginning to end without being edited,” former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., told CBS’ “The Early Show” on Thursday.
“We’ve all had bad days,” Thompson said, “and she’s had some bad moments in some of these interviews, just like the rest of us have had.”

Movie: The Visitor

The Visitor out on DVD next week.

 

 

The Visitor is one of my favorite movies. The acting is brilliant. This is Richard Jenkins’ first lead role, and I am confident we will be seeing more of him. The rest of the cast did a great job as well.

 

  The Visitor is a simmering drama about a college professor and recent widower, Walter Vale (Jenkins), who discovers a pair of homeless, illegal aliens living in his New York apartment. After the mix-up is resolved, Vale invites the couple–a young, Syrian musician named Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and his Senegalese girlfriend (Danai Gurira–to stay with him. An unlikely friendship develops between the retiring, quiet Vale and the vital Tarek, and the former begins to loosen up and respond to Tareks drumming lessons as if something in him waiting to be liberated has finally arrived. All goes well until Tarek is hauled in by immigration authorities and threatened with deportation. His mother, Mouna (Hiam Abbass), turns up and stays with Vale, sparking a renewed if subdued interest in courtship. But the wheels of injustice in immigration crush all manner of hopes in post-9/11 America. Vale soon realizes his unexpected capacity for anger over Tareks plight, and the positive changes to his personal life that emerged from a deep involvement with his friend and Mouna, might be the only legacy he takes from this experience.