tagged w/ President Barack Obama
-
By Erin Rosa, Media Consortium blogger
As grassroots support for the pro-immigration reform March for America grows, anti-immigration groups and their allies are trying to use racial tension to stop the momentum. Opposition groups like NumbersUSA and the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC announced plans this week to partner with Tea Party activists in response to the event, which is expected to draw as many as 100,000 people to the National Mall on March 21.
Their hope? To scare the public into opposing a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
NumbersUSA, a mainstream group that was instrumental in defeating reform in 2007, has discussed the idea of calling immigrant women from Mexico “the new welfare queens,” while others are spreading paranoia that immigrants are trying to “steal the next election.” The White House is holding a bipartisan meeting on immigration legislation this week and the possibility of reform is worrying opponents. They are now desperately attempting to block reform by appealing to frustration and fear.
Amplifying hate
Along with actions to flood Congress with phone calls and faxes, anti-immigration forces are also spreading misinformation and proposing ways to dehumanize immigrant communities. As Stephanie Mencimer notes in Mother Jones, operatives on the far right are pushing a conspiracy theory that the Obama administration is using immigration to steal the 2012 election.
The magazine reports that the WorldNet Daily, a publication which bills itself as “conservative news website,” has come up with an elaborate scheme in which a secret “illegal immigrant registration” will “open the floodgates to fraud.” That’s despite the fact that undocumented immigrants are legally barred from voting in the first place.
On top of that, in a conference call organized by anti-immigration group NumbersUSA, an organization that is routinely quoted by the mainstream media to oppose reform, participants suggested calling immigrant mothers with Mexican heritage “the new welfare queens.” As I report for Campus Progress, NumbersUSA, which worked to kill immigration reform in 2007, held the call this week to coordinate actions against the immigration march.
“I feel the new welfare queen in America today is women coming from Mexico with a bunch of babies,” said one caller.In response, NumbersUSA conference moderator Chad MacDonald said “Thank you very much. I appreciate that.”
Right after that, another caller suggested that anti-immigration activists not use the word “babies,” because it was “emotional.” Said the conference participant, “They aren’t babies. They’re dependents. … They have dependents. We have babies.” While NumbersUSA claims to be against “immigrant bashing,” they made no efforts to stop the hateful statements that their supporters spewed over the phone.
Smart politics
While incendiary rhetoric from immigration opponents is alarming, Kai Wright writes in The Nation that such radicalism could be a good impetus for Democrats to embrace immigration reform. “The great thing about racists is they’ll always take the bait,” claims Wright. “You won’t get far into an immigration-reform debate, for instance, before the GOP’s more zealous legislators start doing things like criminalizing priests and calling Miami a ‘third world country.’”
Politically, most Americans will probably be turned off by hateful and racist language used during the immigration debate, much like they were during the lead up to the confirmation of Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In the end, the disgust factor could end up helping Democrats—if they let it.
“Immigration reform is an issue where Democrats are served better politically by picking a fight with the GOP than running from one,” Wright explains. “The long-term politics are plain: Latino communities nationwide are young, growing and increasingly ready to show up at the polls. And the certain-to-be xenophobic reaction of the GOP’s loudest voices today will not only motive Latinos this November, it will alienate independent voters as well.”
Out of patience
This week, pro-reform grassroots groups held a press conference on Monday to denounce what they said was increased enforcement under the Obama administration, as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency reported at least a 5% increase in deportations for 2009. New America Media reports that advocates at the press meeting pointed out that “livelihoods were lost, local economies affected, and families split apart.”
“These are the same enforcement practices that we marched against during the Bush administration,” said Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, who was quoted by New America Media. The outlet also notes that advocacy groups “contended that the immigration audits or ‘paper raids’ that have replaced workplace raids under Obama are just as damaging to immigrant communities and the businesses that depend on them.”
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Diaspora for a complete list of articles on immigration issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, and health care issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Pulse . This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.By Erin Rosa, Media Consortium blogger
As grassroots support for the... more
-
-
I was going to open this piece with an analogy about the tea party groups and why they're treated seriously by the press and the Republicans. The analogy would go something like: "Imagine [insert left-wing activist group here] getting a serious profile in a mainstream newspaper, and imagine serious Democratic politicians appearing at their convention."
The problem is, when I really evaluated what the various far-left activist groups are all about and compared them with the tea party movement, there really wasn't any equivalency. At all.
Because when you strip away all of the rage, all of the nonsensical loud noises and all of the contradictions, all that's left is race. The tea party is almost entirely about race, and there's no comparative group on the left that's similarly motivated by bigotry, ignorance and racial hatred.
I hasten to note that I'm talking about real racism, insofar as it's impossible for the majority race -- the 70 percent white majority -- to be on the receiving end of racism. That is unless white males, for example, are suddenly an oppressed racial demographic. But judging by the racial composition of, say, the Senate or AM talk radio or the cast members playing the Obamas on SNL, I don't think white people have anything to worry about.
This isn't an epiphany by any stretch. From the beginning, with their witch doctor imagery, watermelon agitprop and Curious George effigies, the wingnut right has been dying to blurt out, as Lee Atwater famously said, "nigger, nigger, nigger!"
But they can't.
Strike that. Correction. TeaParty.org founder Dale Robertson brandished a sign with the (misspelled) word "niggar." So they're not even as restrained as the generally unstrung Atwater anymore.
Most of the time, they merely imply the use of the word. Rush Limbaugh referring to the president as a "black man-child," for example. Every week, a new example pops up on the radio and somehow the offenders are able to keep their job while Howard Stern is fined for saying the comparatively innocuous word "blumpkin." Limbaugh, on the other hand, can stoke racial animosity on his show by suggesting that health care reform is a civil rights bill -- reparations -- and no one seems to mind. And no, the impotence isn't an adequate Karmic punishment for Limbaugh's roster of trespasses.
The tea party is an extension of talk radio. It's an extension of Fox News Channel. It's an extension of the southern faction of the Republican Party -- the faction that gave us the Southern Strategy, the Willie Horton ad, the White Hands ad and the racially divisive politics of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove. It's an extension of the race-baiting and, often, the outright racism evident in all of those conservative spheres.
But unlike the heavy-handedness of Dale Robertson and others, the tea party followers are generally more veiled about why they're so outraged by our current president.I was going to open this piece with an analogy about the tea party groups and why... more
-
-
02
-
added this
-
15 days ago
- |
-
By Erin Rosa, Media Consortium blogger
Ed. Note: After a brief hiatus, the Diaspora is back! We’re very excited to have Erin Rosa on board for this project. Please stay tuned for the latest developments around immigration reform every Thursday morning.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Korean Resource Center 민족학교, under Creative Commons LicenseFed up with Congress and frustrated with President Barack Obama’s brief mention of immigration reform in the State of the Union address, immigrant rights supporters are now organizing around the clock to push legislators to move on reform in 2010. It will not be an easy feat.
Congress is already bogged down with health care reform and a lingering economic crisis. While Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) has proposed a bill in the House of Representatives to provide a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, immigration reform could be doomed for 2010 if it’s not introduced in the Senate by this Spring. Otherwise, it’s very unlikely that Congress will get around to debating the issue by the end of the year.
Aware of these bitter facts—and even more cognizant of the human rights abuses that will continue so long as the status quo is maintained—reform proponents are gearing up for a number of key battles to improve the immigration system.
La marcha
Born from dissatisfaction with Congress and Obama’s inability to deliver reform, organizers from around the country are preparing to march on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. On March 21, the first day of Spring. The objective is to draw tens of thousands of immigrant rights supporters to Capitol Hill. As New America Media reports, March for America “will be a test of immigrant advocates’ organizing capacity and their increasing use of technology to stoke a popular groundswell on immigration.”
The march, which is organized by the Reform Immigration For America coalition, will also “bring together advocates focused on different parts of the immigration policy agenda,” including supporters of agricultural labor, better immigrant detention standards, and the DREAM Act, federal legislation that provide a pathway to citizenship for certain immigrants who entered the United States before the age of 16.
While mainstream media coverage of the march has been relatively quiet, with many English-language outlets ignoring it completely, the organizing behind the scenes has been even more hush hush. This is a massive grassroots effort to raise public awareness around the country. Members from hundreds of state immigration groups are attending churches, making phone calls, knocking on doors, and organizing caravans to get people to Washington in March. Even mainstream Spanish-language outlets have gotten involved and encouraged their audiences to contact the Reform Immigration For America campaign for all the latest information.
Perhaps most refreshing is that unlike the immigration reform fight in 2007, which was plagued by a number of organizational hurdles, national immigration organizations in Washington have reached out to grassroots groups across the nation for the march. As Bill Chandler, an executive director for the Mississippi Immigrant’s Rights Alliance, told the National Radio Project recently, “The grassroots groups were left out of the discussion [in 2007] and what we’re trying to do is make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Speed bumps on the Trail of Dreams
While organizers are preparing for his month’s march, four young students are continuing a 1,500 mile trek on foot, dubbed the “Trail of Dreams,” in support of the DREAM Act. The students, three of whom are undocumented immigrants, started their journey on Jan 1. in Miami and are currently hiking through Georgia on their way to Washington, where they are expected to arrive in May. Along the way, they are educating people about how the DREAM Act would help kids like them.
Under current law, some of the walkers still face deportation, even though they were only children when their parents brought them into the United States. While the four students have encountered a lot of support from the communities that they’ve visited, they’ve also come across some ugly opposition. As AlterNet notes, a recent Ku Klux Klan rally in Georgia “was timed to occur when the Trail of Dreams walkers were passing through the area,” and there was a “a stark difference between the messages of the two groups: one for tolerance and human rights, the other for hatred and racism.
Immigration Detention Abuses Continue
The Varick Federal Detention Facility, a privately-run immigration prison in New York city that was overseen by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, is closing and relocating approximately 250 of its inmates to a New Jersey lockup. As RaceWire reports, the move is “partially because of public pressure” since “Varick has a well-documented track record of detainee abuse and fatal medical negligence,” but “shutting down one facility doesn’t address the broader system.”
When immigration officials granted a media tour to The Nation shortly before the prison closed, reporter Jackie Stevens described the scene inside: “The dorms are packed with rows of narrow beds, fifty in all; the law library has dated resources; there is no privacy; and there is no natural light, ever.”
On top of that, even “the agents hosting the tour seemed embarrassed and emphasized the upcoming transfer as we looked through a long hall window at men slouching, feet on the floor, using their beds as backless chairs.” Varick is just one of many immigration detention facilities with documented abuses, and while the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that ultimately controls ICE, has promised to reform the system, they have still refused to introduce any legally-binding regulations for detainee treatment.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Diaspora for a complete list of articles on immigration issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, and health care issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Pulse . This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.By Erin Rosa, Media Consortium blogger
Ed. Note: After a brief hiatus, the Diaspora... more
-
-
With his first year in office, President Barak Obama's accomplishments are dynamic and represent the most accomplishments of change for the United States and the world. In a mission to provide a stronger nation that with a vision of world peace, his actions are speaking decades of change. Controversial views have provided no solutions to the problems of our country, although the President has opened the White House to suggestions. With the vision of world peace, this President continues steadfast in considering the needs of all the people on the planet, putting his own needs last, ready to face the most challenging problems he has inherited from the preceding administration. "I'm Not Done Yet" (The Best is Yet to Come) is created and performed soley by Philip Cacayorin while various images are provided by permission by The Department of Defense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdBb83u72qMWith his first year in office, President Barak Obama's accomplishments are... more
-
-
The Internet Security Alliance presented Melissa Hathaway with its annual award for vision in cyber security Tuesday during an event at the National Press Club. Hathaway, the Obama Administration’s former acting cyber security chief, received the McCurdy Award on the one-year anniversary of when she began her 60-day review of the government’s cyber security program. ISA believes that Hathaway’s work, if implemented, would result in the establishment of a modern partnership between the public and private sectors, which is necessary for an effective and sustainable system of cyber security.
http://information-security-resources.com/2010/02/09/isa-presents-melissa-hathaway-with-award/The Internet Security Alliance presented Melissa Hathaway with its annual award for... more
-
-
Sarah Palin Tells Tea Party U.S. Ready for ‘Another Revolution’
By John McCormick
Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) — Sarah Palin, a hero amid the leaderless Tea Party movement, told hundreds of fans at the group’s inaugural national convention that their efforts will empower voters and change America.
“I am a big supporter of this movement,” Palin said. “America is ready for another revolution.”
For the Full VIDEO of Sarah Palins Speech.....http://ctpatriot1970.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/sarah-palin-tells-tea-party-u-s-ready-for-%E2%80%98another-revolution%E2%80%99-video-hitting-obama-talking-national-security/
The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice- presidential nominee said the current Democratic administration can no longer blame the previous one for the nation’s ills.
“It’s been a year now,” she said. “They own this now, and voters are going to hold them accountable.”Sarah Palin Tells Tea Party U.S. Ready for ‘Another Revolution’
By John... more
-
-
January 31, 2010
Op-Ed Columnist
Camus Fired Up
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
It began as a bit of partisan gamesmanship and ended, surprisingly, as illuminating political theater.
White House advisers thought that if they asked that cameras and reporters be allowed in for the usually closed Q. and A. with the president at the annual retreat of House Republicans, the Republicans might say no and look obstructionist.
But the Republicans realized what the White House was up to, got irritated and opened up the exchange in Baltimore to show they weren’t scared of the smart, facile and newly warmblooded Barack Obama.
And during the next hour and a half, our government did not look quite so lame.
Obama is always at his best when his back is against the wall, and he is perversely content when he has the challenge of the lion’s den.
He may lapse back into his Camus coma at any moment. But on Friday he dropped the diffident debutante act and offered, as he did at the State of the Union, some welcome gumption.
“You know,” he said, halfway through his sparring session with Republicans, “I’m having fun.”
When he was running for president, John McCain said that if he won, he would regularly take questions in the peppering style of the British prime minister in the House of Commons.
But it was Obama who ended up doing just such a Ping-Pong session, standing in a hotel ballroom and giving as good he got, to-ing and fro-ing in a far more vivid way than in the presidential debates.
The president chided his audience for casting his health care plan as a “Bolshevik plot” and for telling folks back home that he’s “doing all kinds of crazy stuff that’s going to destroy America.” But Obama also acknowledged that the Republicans have some good ideas, and that, as it turned out, was what they yearned to hear.
In the end, the Republicans may well go back to being inflexibly inflexible with this president, but for a moment in time, each side realized that the other side had something to say. It was, as The Times’s reporters Peter Baker and Carl Hulse called it, a televised marriage-therapy session “as each side vented grievances pent up after a year of partisan gridlock.”
The Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz picked up on the president’s line in the State of the Union about “a deficit of trust.”
“We didn’t create this mess, but we are here to help clean it up,” the freshman member said, before ticking off a litany of things that have soured many Americans on the president who came in trailing fairy dust.
“When you stood up before the American people multiple times and said you would broadcast the health care debates on C-Span, you didn’t,” he said.
And another good one: “You said you weren’t going to allow lobbyists in the senior-most positions within your administration, and yet you did.”
And another: “You said you’d go line by line through the health care bill. And there were six of us, including Dr. Phil Roe, who sent you a letter and said we would like to take you up on that offer. ... We never got a call.”
And this rousing finale: “And when you said in the House of Representatives that you were going to tackle earmarks and in fact you didn’t want to have any earmarks in any of your bills, I jumped out of my seat and applauded you.”
But that was another disappointment.
Obama hedged on a technicality on the health care question, noting that “overwhelmingly the majority of it actually was on C-Span because it was taking place in Congressional hearings in which you guys were participating.”
When Peter Roskam of Illinois complained that they’d been “stiff-armed” by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the president promised to bring the Republican and Democratic House leadership together for more play dates.
In a way, it was the sort of civic affairs master class that this college-bowl president had wanted from the beginning, before it began to look like W., Cheney and Rove had truly smashed bipartisanship.
But he didn’t hesitate to give Jeb Hensarling a smack-down when the rabid ideologue from Texas asked if the president’s new budget, “like your old budget,” would “triple the national debt.”
Obama crisply told “Jim,” inadvertently (perhaps) mixing up Jeb’s name, “It’s very hard to have the kind of bipartisan work that we’re going to do, because the whole question was structured as a talking point for running a campaign.” Then the president offered a quick math lesson on what Republicans never admit: that it was W. and the Republican Congress who ran up much of our $12 trillion debt and left us pawning our family jewels to the Chinese.
Obama’s advisers must wish they could do this every week for the cameras. It was a lot more elucidating than Joe Wilson shouting, “You lie!”January 31, 2010
Op-Ed Columnist
Camus Fired Up
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
It... more
-
-
By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger
In his first State of the Union address, President Barack Obama touched on climate issues only briefly. He called on the Senate to pass a climate bill, but did not give Congress a deadline or promise to veto weak legislation. Nor did he mention the Copenhagen climate conference, where international negotiators struggled to produce an agreement on limiting global carbon emissions.
The Obama administration’s attitude towards climate change still represents a remarkable shift from the Bush years, when global warming was treated as little more than a fairy tale. But in the past year, Congressional squabbling has stalled climate legislation, and international negotiators nearly gridlocked in talks over carbon admissions at the multinational Copenhagen conference. Without strong leadership from the president, work to prevent this looming environmental crisis will stall.
Obama did address global warming skeptics, saying that they should support investment in clean energy, “because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy.”
“And America must be that nation,” Obama said.
No push for climate bill
Despite his combative language, the president did not challenge Congress to push for real solutions to ballooning carbon emissions and energy consumption. As Forrest Wilder of The Texas Observer notes, Obama “uttered the phrase ‘climate change’ precisely once.”
The Senate has already wait-listed the climate bill: Health care came first. With health care reform now in line behind work on jobs and bank regulation, climate legislation has little chance of passing the Senate in the coming months, let alone making it to the president’s desk.
If Congress lets this work wait until after the midterm elections, the United States will show up at international negotiations in December 2010 as a leader in carbon emissions yet again, but with little in hand to show a way forward.
Clean energy, not renewable energy
When the president did bring up climate issues, he focused on their connection between climate reform and potential job creation. Obama highlighted areas for growth, not in renewable energy fields like wind or solar power, but in nuclear power, natural gas, and clean coal.
Yes, these fuel sources could decrease the country’s carbon emissions. But they are not solutions that will revolutionize energy production. Grist’s David Roberts was floored that the speech omitted renewable energy entirely and kowtowed to a more conservative litany of energy projects. “I suppose it was done to flatter conservative Senators that will have to vote for the bill Kerry, Lieberman, and Graham are working on,” he writes. (The three Senators are working on a version of the climate bill designed to appeal to Republicans.)
“But the SOTU is not a policy negotiation,” Roberts says. “It’s a bully pulpit, a chance to shape rather than respond to existing narratives.”
Roberts argues that progressive supporters would benefit from a stronger message. If activists knew that the White House stands behind a real shift in America’s energy policy, they could use that prompt to drive action on climate change.
What was missing
While touting the virtues of off-shore drilling, Obama overlooked other policies that could broker real change. Although he admonished Congress to pass a climate bill, he did not pressure the legislature on what he’d like that bill to include. He did not mention cap-and-trade, the mechanism the House bill relies on to tamp down emissions and dirty energy use.
President Obama did touch on transportation reforms that could decrease the country’s use of fossil fuels.
“There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains,” Obama said. He cited a high-speed rail project that broke ground on Tuesday in Tampa, FL, as evidence that America could best the rest of the world in creating new energy-efficient technology.
But one or two high-profilBy Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger
In his first State of the Union address,... more
-
-
United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and President Barack Obama have a history together and if it wasn't clear before Wednesday night, it is now - the two just don't like eachother. But are there really politics in the Supreme Court or is it just, "Call(ing) balls and strikes?"
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2010/01/alitos-face.htmlUnited States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and President Barack Obama have a... more
-
-
-
The President's annual State of the Union address is meant to be a sort of check-in. The Commander-in-Chief takes a limo ride down to the Capitol Building and lets the legislative branch know what his branch has been up to. In practice it's become an opportunity for the President to lay out a laundry list of an agenda which gets insta-polled by lawmakers standing-or-not-standing-up-to-clap.
Tonight at 8pm ET will be Obama's very first State of the Union. There's a lot of conjecture about what he could say. There have been reports that he'll announce a non-military spending freeze. Or that he's going to throw a fistful of money at high speed rail. Heck maybe he'll take up Schwarzenegger on his plan to outsource prisoners to Mexico.
What are you hoping to hear from Obama today? Tough new banking regulations? A draw-down of troops overseas? Tell us your State of the Union wishlist.
Sources/Image: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/us/politics/27obama.htmlThe President's annual State of the Union address is meant to be a sort of... more
-
-
-
Speaking truth to power, Cornel West approaches the president on poverty and the need to be true to progressive valuesSpeaking truth to power, Cornel West approaches the president on poverty and the need... more
-
-
Lesnar and UFC president Dana White announced this morning that the UFC heavyweight champion has miraculously recovered from an intestinal disorder, is back training tomorrow and is slated to fight sometime this summer. That’s all great but we really missed Lesnar’s attitude, opinions and bravado.
Full Story On Brock Lesnar Return and Anti Obamacare Rant VIDEO...http://ctpatriot1970.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/brock-lesnar-returns-to-ufc-rants-about-canadian-healthcare-and-obama/
Lesnar turned today’s teleconference into a campaign against the drive for universal healthcare in the United States.Lesnar and UFC president Dana White announced this morning that the UFC heavyweight... more
-
-
President Obama speaks about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the importance of persistence in achieving broader goals in remarks at the Vermont Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.President Obama speaks about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the... more
-
-
Senate passes $871 billion health care reform bill
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Senate passed a potentially historic $871 billion health care reform bill Thursday morning, handing President Barack Obama a Christmas victory on his top domestic priority.
CtPatriot… They don’t care what I think… They dont care what YOU think … Our Government wants to Control US… every aspect of our existence. Do you think your life is going to be the same? the way it was? Ha… Sucker… All of our lives and our Childrens lives will be reduced to that of a 3rd world nation. How long before WE are waiting in line for State approved Toilet paper???
For the Full Story you wont read in the main stream media....http://ctpatriot1970.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/health-care-bill-passes-senate-freedom-dies-we-are-screwed/Senate passes $871 billion health care reform bill
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The... more
-
-
By Alison Hamm, Media Consortium Blogger
President Barack Obama’s much-anticipated arrival in Copenhagen today has turned from a hopeful sign of success into a grim reality check. Immediately after arriving this morning, Obama joined an unscheduled meeting with 18 other world leaders before the most high-profile session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (Cop15) began. The deal depends on the United States and China, the world’s leading emitters of greenhouse gas emissions to reach an agreement on a course of action.
At this morning’s session, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jibao hailed his country’s efforts to curb greenhouse emissions. Wen implied that China would keep its emissions voluntary and unilateral, which was out of step with suggestions that China place its reduction goals within a binding treaty. Then, Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva complained about the Cop15 negotiations’ lack of progress.
A visibly frustrated Obama took the stage immediately after (video below), saying he was in Copenhagen “not to talk, but to act.” The question is no longer the nature of the challenge, Obama said, but leaders’ capacity to meet it: “For while the reality of climate change is not in doubt, I have to be honest as the world watches us today. I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt right now and it hangs in the balance. I believe we can act boldly and decisively in the face of a common threat.”
David Corn of Mother Jones wrote that Obama’s speech “signaled a global train wreck… Obama was clearly venting. … If an accord is not reached at this summit, Obama remarked, ‘we will be back having the same stale arguments month after month, year after year, perhaps decade after decade all while the danger of climate change grows until it is irreversible.’”
Although Obama didn’t mention China directly, he “took a dig at the way the country has resisted transparency measures for monitoring emissions cuts,” as Jonathan Hiskes writes for Grist. “Is this a sign that the Copenhagen talks may fail to produce even a weak, tentative accord—a so-called ‘fig leaf’ deal that would provide world leaders the barest of cover? That’s one line of speculation. Of course, that could be out of date within a few hours.”
Obama reminded the delegates of the United State’s commitment to action on climate change, reiterating Hillary Clinton’s statement Thursday that the country plans to mobilize $100 billion in financing for developing nations by 2020, but “if, and only if, it is part of a broader accord.”
But is a broader accord still possible in Copenhagen? Grist reports that in a one-on-one meeting after Obama’s speech, Obama and Prime Minister Wen discussed “three of the most contentious areas blocking the path to a climate deal on the last day of the summit: Verification guarantees, financing to help developing nations deal with climate change, and permitted emission levels.” Afterward, they asked their negotiators to meet to search for an agreement.
Although China and the U.S. are the biggest players in these talks, it would be remiss to ignore the work of the G77 block of poor nations who are “still playing hardball,” as Jacob Wheeler writes for In These Times. “They’re on the front lines, their people are already dying in the hundreds of thousands due to climate change, and they don’t have the infrastructure to greenify their infrastructure.”
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Mulch for a complete list of articles on environmental issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Pulse, and The Diaspora.By Alison Hamm, Media Consortium Blogger
President Barack Obama’s... more
-
-
Ban Ki-Moon hints that Obama will be the savior of Copenhagen in a last minute turnaround for the globalists
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Could Obama roll in as the “savior” of Copenhagen in an eleventh hour turnaround?
United Nations Secretary GeneralBan Ki-moon has again publicly admitted that the agenda behind the Copenhagen summit and the climate change fraud is the imposition of a global government and the end of national sovereignty.
Speaking about the agenda to impose targets on CO2 emissions, as well as a global tax on financial transactions and a direct tax on GDP, Ban Ki-moon told the Los Angeles Times in an interview, “We will establish a global governance structure to monitor and manage the implementation of this.”
For full story and Videos>>>http://ctpatriot1970.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/un-chief-we-will-impose-global-governance-rothschild-rues-difficulty-of-activating-%E2%80%9Cglobal-governance-agenda%E2%80%9D-at-copenhagen/Ban Ki-Moon hints that Obama will be the savior of Copenhagen in a last minute... more
-
-
"New figures meanwhile show the US prison population has reached an all-time high. According to the Justice Department, 2.3 million people were behind bars last year. The prison population continues to grow at less than one percent, down from an annual six percent growth during the previous decade."
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/10/headlines
(image taken from the Callifornia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation websites "Prison Overcrowding Photos")"New figures meanwhile show the US prison population has reached an all-time... more
-
-
President Barack Obama appeared in Oslo, Norway on Thursday to accept the Nobel peace prize, a prestigious award some believe he has not yet earned. In his Novel peace prize speech accepting the award, Obama acknowledged the controversy regarding his nomination.President Barack Obama appeared in Oslo, Norway on Thursday to accept the Nobel peace... more
-
