Thursday, April 02, 2009

Obama Speaks at G20 Video

Partnerships as opposed to dictating solutions:
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Michelle Obama Visits London School

The kids loved her - watch the Secret Service move in on the small children:

BBC: The world needs strong young women to pave the way for the future, an emotional US First Lady Michelle Obama has told schoolgirls in London.
Mrs Obama was close to tears as she addressed the excited crowd at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in Islington, north London.
She told them: "We are counting on every single one of you to be the best that you can be."
Mrs Obama is in the UK with husband Barack for the G20 summit.
Her visit to the North London school was greeted with much excitement by pupils and she sat smiling, riveted, as Year 11 pupil Grace Hollowell and the school's junior choir performed the Whitney Houston hit Believe.
Mrs Obama, a mother of two girls herself, smiled and watched intently throughout the other performances, which also included a modern-day staging of The Tempest, and a presentation on the school's new Learning To Lead scheme.

This is so awesome:
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G20 Agree To End Tax Havens and So Much More

While the media continues their negative coverage of the G20, it looks as though the global leaders got down to business, just as Geithner predicted yesterday. Now, let's hope it sticks.

Leaders agree to fund the International Monetary Fund:
BBC: To help countries with troubled economies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will get extra resources worth up to $750bn.
There will also be sanctions against secretive tax havens and tougher global financial regulation.
And the G20 has committed about $250bn to boost global trade.
....
On behalf of the G20, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the following steps:
Bankers' pay and bonuses will be subject to stricter controls
A new Financial Stability Board will be set up to work with the IMF to ensure co-operation across borders and provide an early warning mechanism for the financial system
There will be greater regulation of hedge funds and credit ratings agencies
A common approach to cleaning up banks' toxic assets has been agreed
The world's poorest countries will receive $100bn extra aid
G20 countries are already implementing the biggest economic stimulus "the world has ever seen" - an injection of $5tn by the end of next year.
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London Having Fun With Michelle Obama's Style

Michelle Obama will be speaking in London today.

AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven, 'Obama seems everywhere as he takes global stage': 'He talked nuclear threats with Russia's president and gave an iPod to the queen. And that was only the beginning. It was an eventful first day on the world stage for President Barack Obama, launching new arms control talks, placing China ties on fresh footing and calming fears about the ailing U.S. economy - seemingly everywhere, relaxed and smiling all the while. While wife Michelle attracted breathless attention with every stop, fashionable outfit and sip of tea. The new U.S. president ... dashed through a dawn-to-dark schedule Wednesday despite the effects of a head cold. School children ran alongside his nearly 20-vehicle motorcade.' Politico
More fashion mania:
Mrs. Obama wore J.Crew to 10 Downing Street. AP Fashion Writer: 'She toured a cancer center with Sarah Brown [the prime minister's wife] in a J.Crew ensemble that included a mint-green pencil skirt and beaded cardigan in champagne, paired with embossed patent leather Jimmy Choo pumps. ... The J. Crew pieces are available in stores ... The retailer reports that each time Mrs. Obama wears something it sells out.'

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Powell On Rachel Maddow Video

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Wednesday, April 01, 2009

G20 Photos April 1

Bunches of photos here.












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Obamas Arrive to Dinner Video

The ever practical Michelle Obama simply took off her black jacket she had on in the day to go to dinner.
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Geithner's Bloomberg Interview at G20 Video

Geithner is upbeat:
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GM May Be Stripped to Chevy and Cadillac

GM's new leader Fritz Henderson could kill six brands, whack dealers, and cut thousands of more employees. GM is replacing 6 board members.

Fritz Henderson is now calling the shots.
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Geithner Says Downturn Started in U.S.

Geithner says the downturn started here but poor regulations across the world caused the quick spread. The U.S. bears a lot of responsibility for this, he said. More evidence we're out of the Bush era. 
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Obama's Team Across From China's

This photo of Obama's team across from Hu Jintao's is so interesting. Read background on Obama's meeting with Jintao here. 
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Obamas Give the Queen Video iPod and Rare Musical Songbook

See video of the meeting here.
President Obama took time out from a hectic day of nuclear breakthroughs and arranging geopolitical summits with Russia and China to visit the queen in Buckingham Palace -- and to give her an iPod.

In a day laced with diplomatic minefields, Obama also had to confront this one: What do you get for a woman who has everything?

The presidential anwer was an iPod.

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama visited the queen at the palace this evening and presented her with a gift of a video iPod with an inscription on it and songs pre-loaded. The Obamas also gave the queen a rare musical songbook signed by American composer Richard Rodgers. ABC

Jake Tapper Twitters that the iPod had photos of Obama's inauguration, and photos and video from her 2007 visits to White House, Jamestown and Richmond, Virginia, and video of her 1957 Jamestown visit.
He also says that the British press is reporting that the Browns gave the Obamas a signed photograph in a silver frame.
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While Obama's Away Republicans Release Budget

This is their real budget, one with numbers, as opposed to the one they released last week, which would undo the stimulus, cut taxes and drill baby drill. Congress is about to vote on Obama's budget. Read the GOP budget here.

Paul Ryan:
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Obama and Russia's Medvedev Meet - Video

They look so happy together. They agreed to work on reducing nuclear stockpiles:
In a statement after a closed-door meeting, the two leaders pledged to begin immediately on a new treaty on offensive nuclear weapons to replace the 2002 Moscow Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions, which expires at the end of this year. They committed to reducing their nuclear arsenals to levels lower that those mandated by the START treaty, which calls for both nations to have between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads by Dec. 31, 2012. WaPo


From Politico:
Senior Official One says that 6 months ago was the lowest point in U.S.-Russia relations since the end of the Cold War.

"This document shows we’re in a different place," brags the official, touting the joint communique that includes a promise to renew an arms control treaty.

The official, though, noted that Obama and Medvedev found areas of disagreement, pointing to Georgia, the general concept of "spheres of influence" and missile defense.

Both leaders acknowledged that the relationship between the two nations had "drifted" -- with each using the same word, Obama in English and Medvedev in Russian.

Read the transcript here. Medvedev:
I can only agree that the relations between our countries have been adrift over the past years. As President Obama has said, they were drifting, and drifting in some wrong directions. They were degrading, to some extent.

That is why we believe that since such a situation was not to the benefit of the United States or Russia Federation, to say nothing about the global situation, we believe that the time has come to reset our relations, as it was said, and to open a new page in progression in the development of our common situation.

Indeed, it was said that we are prepared to cooperate further in such areas as the nonproliferation of WMDs limitation of strategic weapons, countering terrorism, and improving economic and financial situation and the overall economic situation in the world. It is important to note that there are many points on which we can work. And indeed there are far more points in which we can -- where we can come closer, where we can work, rather than those points on which we have differences. Thus, by bringing our positions closer we can attain significant progress and, much more importantly, further our achievements.
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Arne Duncan Releases $44 Billion for Schools

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Obama Benefiting From Birth Certificate Controversy?

Well, this is an interesting take by Andrew Walden, a conservative and founder of the Hawaii Free Press, who says Obama is playing the Birthers, the people who question Obama's citizenship.
I'm not sure I follow the logic on how it benefits Obama or how it's part of Obama's grand strategy. Walden insists it distracts from Obama's ties to radicals. Whatever.
I'd sure like to see the Birthers move on to greater things. But it's sort of like a cult now. They have their leaders and they've put so much effort into this birth certificate thing that to turn back now would shake the very ground they walk on. If they did move on, it certainly wouldn't be to any higher levels of conversation, so really, unless they get violent, I guess it doesn't matter what they think.
A fairly impressive internet industry has sprung up claiming that Obama was born in either Kenya or Indonesia. This is nonsense which distracts from the broadly unexplored story of Obama’s upbringing. This kind of nonsense has emerged because the McCain campaign chose not to raise the many questions about Barack Obama’s numerous hard-left alliances. Barack Obama was born in Hawai'i, August 4, 1961 at Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu.
Obama’s birth certificate posted online is exactly the same birth certificate everybody in Hawaii gets from the State Department of Health. It is not forged. There is nothing unusual about the design or the texture. In addition to the birth certificate, the August 13, 1961 Honolulu Advertiser also carries an announcement of Obama’s birth. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin also carries the same announcement. Both papers printed an identical list of birth announcements supplied to them by the Hawaii State Department of Health. Conspiracists have made much of the fact that the Territory of Hawaii gave a phony birth certificate in 1904 to Chinese republican leader Sun Yat Sen for diplomatic reasons. But the modern State of Hawaii has never supplied Certification of Live Birth indicating US birth for foreign-born children.

By refusing media requests for a look at the actual paper birth certificate, Obama’s campaign gave sly backhanded assistance to the forgery hype. The internet release of the birth certificate via hyper-partisan website Daily Kos on June 12 before posting it on a campaign website was likely calculated to fuel the frenzy. This is Obama’s Gramscian strategy designed to redirect the opposition down a blind alley. It was so successful that Hawai'i government offices found themselves inundated with telephone calls from mainland voters in the days before the November 4 election.

Since Hawai'i law forbids the release of birth certificates to anybody not authorized by Barack Obama or his family, Obama further feeds the paranoia by choosing not to grant such permissions. A World Net Daily story claiming Hawai'i’s Republican Governor Linda Lingle ‘sealed’ the birth certificate is totally false. The governor’s office has asked for a retraction. The forgery story was also boosted by video claims that Obama’s Kenyan grandmother, stated that Obama “is a son of this village”—a phrase which can have many different meanings. Read the rest at FrontPage
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Petraeus Warns Israel May Attack Iran

Seems to me Israel is overreaching at this moment, as renewed diplomatic efforts are underway, sort of like what Bush did with the invasion of Iraq. It appears Israel is of the mind to bomb its way to peace. 
Bloomberg: Israel might choose to attack Iran to prevent it from developing a nuclear bomb, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East said today.

Army General David Petraeus told Congress that “the Israeli government may ultimately see itself so threatened by the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon that it would take preemptive military action to derail or delay it.”

While Iran insists its nuclear program is intended for peaceful power generation, Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, said “Iranian officials have consistently failed to provide the assurances and transparency necessary for international acceptance and verification.”

Iran refuses to suspend uranium enrichment, in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions, and won’t give international inspectors full access to its nuclear facilities.

Iran’s “obstinacy and obfuscation have forced Iran’s neighbors and the international community to conclude the worst about the regime’s intention,” Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Iran responds:
Ali Akbar Javanfekr, media adviser to Iran’s President Mahmound Ahmadinejad, responded to the general’s comments.

“Iran’s position as a powerful country that is a proponent of logic and peace, the Zionist regime’s chaotic situation, and the state of the world’s economy are realities that do not make this possible,” Javanfekr said in a telephone interview.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor declined to comment on Petraeus’s remarks.

Netanyahu’s Threat

Israel has signaled impatience with the international diplomatic effort to deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon. Benjamin Netanyahu, in an interview with the Atlantic magazine given shortly before he became prime minister yesterday, said President Barack Obama must act quickly to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb or Israel might be compelled to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.
Here is a bit of the story from the Atlantic:
In an interview conducted shortly before he was sworn in today as prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu laid down a challenge for Barack Obama. The American president, he said, must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons—and quickly—or an imperiled Israel may be forced to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities itself.

“The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu told me. He said the Iranian nuclear challenge represents a “hinge of history” and added that “Western civilization” will have failed if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

In unusually blunt language, Netanyahu said of the Iranian leadership, “You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.”

History teaches Jews that threats against their collective existence should be taken seriously, and, if possible, preempted, he suggested. In recent years, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has regularly called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” and the supreme Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, this month called Israel a “cancerous tumor.”
Netanyahu is skeptical of diplomatic efforts:
Netanyahu said he would support President Obama’s decision to engage Iran, so long as negotiations brought about a quick end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “How you achieve this goal is less important than achieving it,” he said, but he added that he was skeptical that Iran would respond positively to Obama’s appeals. In an hour-long conversation, held in the Knesset, Netanyahu tempered his aggressive rhetoric with an acknowledgement that nonmilitary pressure could yet work. “I think the Iranian economy is very weak, which makes Iran susceptible to sanctions that can be ratcheted up by a variety of means.” When I suggested that this statement contradicted his assertion that Iran, by its fanatic nature, is immune to pressure, Netanyahu smiled thinly and said, “Iran is a composite leadership, but in that composite leadership there are elements of wide-eyed fanaticism that do not exist right now in any other would-be nuclear power in the world. That’s what makes them so dangerous.”
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London G20 Protesters Clash With Police Video

Londoners are really, really mad at bankers. The bankers there have been advised to wear jeans. This Bloomberg reporter says the protests have been "contained." Londoners really know how to throw a protest. See the day in pictures here.






In pictures and set to music:

Stop the war protest "Free Palestine:"
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The Obamas Meet the Queen Video


The Obamas arrive at Buckingham Palace for tea:
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Obama and Gordon Brown Conference Video


The first question, a tough one, from Nick at the BBC was: The Prime Minister blames the U.S. for the economic downturn, is that true?
Obama answered skillfully and without malice. The U.S. has some accounting to do as far as regulations, but around the world the same problem existed, Obama said. He said he didn't want to place blame but rather fix the problem. Some are to blame but all are responsible, he said.
NYT: In his debut as president on the world stage, Mr. Obama sought to project a united front even as some G-20 leaders continued to challenge the model being pushed by his administration to get out of the crisis. Appearing at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the host of the conference, Mr. Obama called reports of an international division “vastly overstated.”

Mr. Brown, for his part, promised reporters that French President Nicholas Sarkozy would not walk out of the Group of 20 meeting on Thursday, contrary to threats by French officials.

“Nearly every country engaged here has done a fiscal stimulus,” Mr. Obama said, in what has become one of the meeting’s biggest talking points meant to project unity between the 20 countries assembled. “We can only meet this challenge together.” Rather than play up their differences, Mr. Obama urged leaders to “focus on common ground.”
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