Bits And Bobs

- The Refugee Council, the TUC, STAR (Student Action for Refugees), and other organisations are calling for the government to allow asylum seekers to work. This would help intergration, reskill refugees to offer a better future, and combat destitution. As well, the Coventry Refugee Centre is thinking of bringing this project to Coventry. Currently, the only overnight housing for destitute refugees and asylum seekers is at the Peace House's night shelter.

- A street in Birmingham (Green Lane in Great Barr) has cut its energy consumption by 20% (an average of £200 in bills per household). Caroline Handley told BRMB radio: "It was a bit difficult because a lot of it is behavioural changes and then suddenly you're thinking I can leave this on, I can't leave that on. But over the 12 months gradually you just do things without thinking now."

- Gordon Brown giving a speech to a joint session of Congress ... bless. Enjoy it whilst it lasts, Gordon, since the centre of power in the world economy is moving to India, Korea, China, Japan, Singapore, and Indonesia. Steve Bell is skeptical about the UK closing its own tax havens, but when you're redrawing the rules, it's "the perfect time to build important [arms control] nonproliferation goals into the world’s banking system."

A few other things to read:

- Saudi Arabia's oil production peaked in 2005.
- Libby Brookes on the 100th anniversary of the war on drugs
- A fifth anniversary next week
- PeaceJam is this weekend in Bradford
- A victory for Tesco over competition and market share
- The TUC has a new pamphlet out: Unlocking Green Enterprise

Obama And Rendition

The ominous part, so far, of Obama's foreign policy is that he's not speaking out about rendition. His administration is backing efforts by a subsidiary of an aviation firm, Jeppesen, to bar a lawsuit claiming the subsidiary played a role in the CIA's rendition programme of terror suspects. The suit claims that Jeppesen arranged over 70 flights for the CIA since 2001, and it involves Binyam Mohamed, the British resident held at Guantanamo (the kerfuffle last week over Washington threatening to stop cooperating with London on intelligence). Marc Ambinder was pulling out his hair when reporters didn't ask Obama about Jeppesen at his first televised evening press conference. Allowing the suit to go forward would be a way to open up the process around rendition, i.e. to stop it, and Obama's not taking it.

US Research At Aldermaston

The US Congress stops funding of the "Reliable Replacement Warhead" ... so what does the Pentagon do? Conduct the research in Britain.

It's the natural result of the Atomic Weapons Establishment being managed by three private companies, two of which (Lockheed Martin, Jacobs Engineering) are American. As well, this kind of British-US joint research into nuclear warheads has been going on for years.

Kate Hudson, of CND: "Any work preparing the way for new warheads cuts right across the UK's commitment to disarm, which it signed up to in the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. That this work may be contributing to both future US and British warheads is nothing short of scandalous."

Also read: The Future of the UK’s Strategic Nuclear Deterrent: the Strategic Context (House of Commons Defence Committee, 2005/6)

China And US To Partner On Climate Change?

This sounds rather encouraging. China and the US might team up to fight climate change. Hillary Clinton has announced her first overseas trip (Japan, South Korea, China, Indonesia): "She will raise the prospect of a 'strong, constructive partnership' to combat climate change on a visit to Beijing next week, and the President is seriously considering a proposal from many of his most senior advisers to hold a summit with the Chinese leadership to launch the plan."

Obama Environmental Report Card

Good - Obama has ordered the US Department of Energy to draft regulations to make ovens, vending machines, microwave ovens, dishwashers and light bulbs more energy-efficient.

Good - Camilla Cavendish in the Times: "The first two executive orders signed by the President were, he said, a “downpayment” towards the green economy. One tightened fuel-efficiency standards for cars, an issue once thought to be politically untouchable. The other gave permission to states to move faster than the Federal Government."

Good - Lisa Jackson, the head of the US environmental protection agency, has said that the government will no longer stand in the way of requiring coal and oil-fired power plants to install more stringent mercury controls.

Bad - The US Senate's version of the stimulus package has $50 billion in loan guarantees that could be used to build new nuclear reactors and liquid coal plants: "On Monday, twenty environmental and watchdog groups sent letters to the Senate urging the $50 billion loan provision be removed from the bill." Obama and liquid coal is not new. In January 2007, he introduced a bill (with Republican Senator Jim Bunning) to "evaluate the feasibility of including coal-to-oil fuels in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and provide incentives for research and plant construction." In an email sent out by his campaign in June 2007, he said he supported coal-to-liquid fuels, so long as they emit 20% less life-cycle carbon than conventional fuels."

Bad - Obama's stimulus package is skewed in favour of motorways. It has $30 billion for highway construction and only $12 billion for public transit. Greenpeace USA calculates: "If $30 billion were spent on light rail and repairing highways instead of building new ones, the greenhouse-gas emissions would be 10 to 50 times less, because highways tend to encourage more driving and sprawl."

Britain And Guantanamo Bay Torture

David Davis wants the government to make a statement about how complicit Britain was in torture at Guantanamo Bay. He was just on BBC 5 Live.

Davis said that a senior Law Lord wanted to put information about torture in the public domain, but said they had not, as the US government (Bush Administration) threatened to change the intelligence arrangements with the UK.

It's in dispute what the Obama Administration's position is on the information being in the public domain. Davis wants to know that too.

Looking Back From 2010

These predictions -- about Obama's future use of technology and consultation, don't sound too far off:

"In a series of appearances broadcast in prime time but circulated beforehand in high-definition video to online supporters, the president called on Americans to log in to my.WhiteHouse.gov, a social networking site built around the shell of his campaign's successful my.BarackObama.com, and submit their ideas on what measures the legislative package should include. Those signing in used an application much like the now-antiquated MixedInk, which combined the attributes of a wiki with ranking systems like Digg or Reddit, allowing visitors to recombine and rank other people's input."

"When, in August 2009, rural congressmen and farm groups complained that their constituents were being disenfranchised due to lack of Web access, the Department of Homeland Security retrofitted hundreds of Hurricane Katrina-era trailers with Internet terminals and deployed them as "Democracy Stations" across the country. Allegations that these stations were more densely distributed in Democratic-leaning areas were largely overlooked amid the boomlet of positive press coverage that week."

Also read: Melding Obama's Web to a YouTube Presidency, NY Times

Obama's Inauguration

I'm going to a reception at Climate Change Solutions for the Obama inauguration speech/broadcast.

Obama's team on climate change looks good. His ideas around opening up government through technology look good.

The New York Times says 53% of white voters in Alabama now have favourable views of Obama, compared with 17% before the election. That's stunning. Those kind of numbers come from Obama going out of his way, sometimes controversially (HRC, Rick Warren, Robert Gates), to build consensus. Only through building consensus will Obama build a coalition that agrees to wrenching change on "energy independence" and healthcare.

All the "Obama will be a historic President" commentary is hyperbole. Obama has to do things, and move the country his way, and then people can start talking like that. I mean, Bill Clinton began rendition, and he expanded the use of the death penalty, and it led to the kind of electorate that went for George Bush twice. Obama has to embed any changes that he makes, so that they persist after he leaves office, by the ballot or the bullet.

Also read: openDemocracy authors on hopes and fears for an Obama administration

US Weapons At War 2008

This is an annual report, co-authored by William Hartung and Frida Berrigan, of the New America Foundation.

Hartung and Berrigan are calling on Barack Obama, and the next US Congress, to endorse/ratify treaties on landmines and cluster munititions, and to develop a new arms transfer policy that includes human rights and nonproliferation objectives.

Some choice facts:

- The United States accounts for 45% of all weapons transferred globally in 2007.

- During 2006 and 2007, the United States provided weapons and military training to over 174 states and territories, up from 123 states and territories in 2001.

- Of the 27 major conflicts under way during 2006/07, 20 involved one or more parties that had received arms and training from the United States.

Obama And Discontent Over His Cabinet

Keeping Bush's Defence Secretary might be a good thing for Obama to do. FlyOnTheWall makes the point that cabinet appointees execute policy. They work for the president. What has happened, for decades, is that the Pentagon's bureaucracy stalls and out-lasts civilian appointees. Instead, Obama is signalling that he will pursue the key reforms that Gates has tried to put in place. These include trying to stall/question the procurement of the F-22, the C-17, the CSAR-X helicopter, the Zumwalt-class stealth destroyer, and the $160 billion Future Combat Systems initiative.

FlyOnTheWall:

"And defense spending is just the tip of the iceberg. On a wide array of issues including encouraging heterodox thought, promoting capable officers, reigning in inter-service rivalries, prioritizing the needs of soldiers in the field, and placing personnel ahead of technology, Gates has made important strides - a point I've already made at excessive length. Having him pursue the same agenda while working for a President who actually agrees with and supports his efforts is an exciting prospect."

We (anti-military activisits, whether Left or Green) continue to have a contradictory position:

- The military-industrial complex is all-powerful, it cannot be overcome, Blackwater is hiding under every bed, it's iron-clad, we'd doomed to the Pentagon buying £1040 wrenches

- Obama should sweep into office, appoint all progressive people to his cabinet, and throw out Gates, and the military, and military industry, will just fall in line, they'll love Obama, and on his own, he will change the world.

It's neither of these things.

Perhaps Carter and Clinton simply weren't effective (heck, Carter was leading by 30% in the summer of 1976, and he was one-term-and-out) since they came in and appointed people who didn't know what they were doing. Maybe it's more important to set overall policy, manage people (as opposed to Cheney/Scooter/Rummy going rogue), and get things done.

I'd rather Obama concentrate on making the Copenhagen conference a reality, to start getting the US out of Iraq, to begin an economic stimulus in the US, than stumble around for a year with ideologically pure appointees.

US Election News Roundup

- Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan ran as an independent against Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, and received 17% of the vote in a race for Congress

- In contrast, in state after state, Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney didn't receive 1% of the vote. In New York, McKinney received 12 000 votes out of 7 million cast. McKinney had only 180 donors who gave more than $200 to her campaign. The US has become more, not less, of a two-party state, despite the rise of the Green Party since before the 2000 election.

- Hispanic youth (30 years and younger) went for Obama by a 50% margin, i.e. 75% to 25%. More broadly, the youth vote margin was worth an extra 73 electoral votes for Obama.

- Obama won union voters by 22 percent; he won among those with members of unions in their households by 19 percent

- How Obama "branded" himself better.

- Trevor Phillips thinks an Obama can't happen here.

- Paxo vs Dizzy Rascal

- San Francisco had an interesting set of "Propositions" being voted on (local referendums):

Proposition B -- allocating funds to support affordable housing for seniors, families, those in danger of becoming homeless, disabled persons, those living with HIV or AIDS, and at-risk youth -- voted down by 50.54 percent of voters
Proposition H -- a deadline for San Francisco to be powered by 100% clean energy by 2040 -- rejected by 59 percent of voters
Proposition K -- the decriminalization of prostitution in San Francisco, and for the full enforcement of laws against assault or rape in cases involving sex workers -- defeated by more than 57 percent of voters
Proposition U -- no more further federal funding of armed forces in Iraq, except as used for withdrawal from the country -- passed by nearly 60 percent

- Newsweek has a behind-the-scenes look at the campaigns. A cyber attack from an "unknown entity" hit both presidential campaigns' computers during the summer. Obama's campaign had a piece of software called "Project Houdini" to keep track in real-time which people had already voted on election day.

- Women advisers will be key in an Obama administration.

Finally, Wangari Maathai (the Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner from 2004) writes on Obama as an inspiration not just for Africa's young people, but for African leaders too

The 2nd Illinois Lawyer President

The Obama Victory

You can spend some time zooming in and out (down to the county level) at this state-by-state map. Fun for ages 9 to 99.

The results in Virginia and North Carolina were probably the most satisfying.

The Guardian has a good gallery of election day photos.

Hannah has it right here: "Even if Obama wins, we have not 'won.' This isn't a movie and we can't toss every greedy lobbyist oil fatcat bigot down a reactor shaft. If we dedicate ourselves to the ongoing welfare of the country as much as we have to the outcome of this election, we'll have a much better shot at coming closer to the overwhelming good the liberals hope Obama will usher in."

Organized Rage:

"The most important is that for the first time in my life the American masses are investing in a US presidential candidate. One only has to see the TV pictures of the lines of people waiting to register to vote to understand that something new is happening. One working class black woman in her 40s said this will be the first presidential election she has bothered to cast a vote in; and she was far from being alone ... Obama will disappoint us, but his election alone will empower millions of Americans and inspire working class black people no end, They will know that someone with the same skin color as themselves sits at the head of the top table; and he will be conscious of these people blowing down the back of his neck demanding justice. It will also expose the lie that it is the US working classes that are racist to the core."

Obama In Rolling Stone In Feb 2007

Rolling Stone published a profile of Barack Obama right at the start of his presidential campaign in February 2007. It's very revealing. Obama as a man "trying to pull a less-conventional trick: to turn his own person into a movement." His candidacy as "a kind of human Rorschach test ... People see in him what they want to see." His chief advisor, David Axelrod, saying: "we don't know exactly how Barack will respond. I'll be really frank with you: Barack doesn't know exactly how he'll respond."

I think that one way that Obama responded will, hopefully, change politics in Western democracies for the better.

He trusted the people joining his "movement" with responsibility.

Specifically, he used technology creatively to make them drive the process, neighbour-to-neighbour, house party by house party. Part of his election platform that has not received enough attention is how he'll continue that process of grassroots empowerment after a victory. Obama wants Cabinet officials, government executives and rulemaking agencies to hold meetings that are open to the public and transmitted with a live feed. He wants to use blogs and wikis to communicate policies with Americans and provide new subsidies for rural broadband access. He wants to provide raw governmental data to new mashup software tools to track influence and monitor corruption.

If you knock on 10 million doors, and then open up the machinery of government to people, you hopefully create a two-way dialogue, rather than a one-way mirror.

Obama's 30 Minute Informercial

If you're interested, here it is. He bought a half-hour on 7 US television networks (NBC, CBS, Fox, Black Entertainment Television, Univision -- the largest Spanish-language network, and MSNBC). 6 hours after its airing, over 320 000 people have already watched it on YouTube. I think it will come to what Dick Morris said back in June: if Obama managed to define himself as the defender of American values and individualism,he would win a landslide.

Van Jones - The USA In Crisis

Van Jones is a very interesting man. In the same way that we can't impose democracy on other parts of the world down the barrel of a gun, environmental change will have to come from within the United States (5% of the world's population, consuming 25% of the world's resources). A green-collar economy in the US will benefit all of us. We have to figure out ways of supporting Jones ... and people like him.

"There is a mass pro-democracy movement in this country that has its origins back in Seattle that stood up to George Bush around the Iraqi invasion and put millions of people on the streets around the world. Not because of the party, but because people all across this country stood up and said they weren't going to take it anymore. The ones that suffered through the shame of Katrina, that propelled Al Gore to global fame and that Barack Obama saw and decided that its existence created a possibility for him. Barack Obama didn't create this movement. This movement created the opportunity for Obama. And we should never forget that."

The Vet Who Did Not Vet

US Election Update - 27th October

- Obama is literally spending McCain into the ground. This article looks at his buying of TV advertising.

- Young voters in Colorado.

- Conservatives for Change (a YouTube video of people who vote Republican, but who now favour Obama). You might also want to read Andrew Sullivan's "Top 10 Reasons Conservatives Should Vote Obama."

- Nate Silver has become the pollster/analyst to watch. His website, FiveThirtyEight, is worth a read over the final days of the campaign. It uses the demographic composition of each state, plus the various state and national opinion polls, plus 10 000 "WarGames" style simulations each day, to try and predict the outcome of the US presidential election.

- Christopher Hitchens hates Sarah Palin. Things are getting weird when I'm on the same side of an argument with Hitchens.

Mike Davis - Obama And The Credit Crunch

Mike Davis, tomdispatch.com:

"Let me confess that, as an aging socialist, I suddenly find myself like the Jehovah's Witness who opens his window to see the stars actually falling out of the sky. Although I've been studying Marxist crisis theory for decades, I never believed I'd actually live to see financial capitalism commit suicide. Or hear the International Monetary Fund warn of imminent systemic meltdown."

[...]

"The third problem with the New Deal analogy is perhaps the most important. Military Keynesianism is no longer an available deus ex machina. A bigger Pentagon budget no longer creates hundreds of thousands of stable factory jobs ... although both candidates have endorsed programs, including expansion of Army and Marine combat strength, missile defense (aka "Star Wars"), and an intensified war in Afghanistan, that will enlarge the military-industrial complex, none of this will replenish the supply of decent jobs nor prime a broken national pump. However, in the midst of a deep slump, what a huge military budget can do is obliterate the modest but essential reforms that make up Obama's plans for healthcare, alternative energy, and education. In other words, Rooseveltian guns and butter have become a contradiction in terms, which means that the Obama campaign is engineering a catastrophic collision between its national security priorities and its domestic policy goals."

Obama, Ohio And Organising

Probably the best article I've read on how the Obama campaign is using community organising:

"The Ohio campaign is attempting to build teams in 1,231 campaign-defined "neighborhoods," each covering eight to ten precincts. They are targeting virtually every inhabited square mile of the state. The campaign claimed to have teams in 65% of neighborhoods when I visited in early September. That's risen to 85% coverage at press time — and they are shooting for 100%. In contrast, the Kerry campaign effectively wrote off rural counties, and completely abandoned them in the final few weeks of the campaign in a last minute all-in shift to the cities."