The Smithian

June 18th, 2013

thesmithian

'...it is the first march by Black folks that seeks to demand action from the first black President: President Obama.'

June 16th, 2013

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June 9th, 2013

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June 8th, 2013

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I write this from Nigeria, a country that has just celebrated its 14th year of democracy. President Obama’s election enabled Africans to see America in a new light. I hope his visit will enable Americans to see Africa with new eyes. We know the problems of Africa: its poverty, corruption and conflict. After 246 years of the slave trade, 100 years of colonialism, African suffering and struggle are known. But perhaps the president’s visit will enable us to see the possibilities…Democracy and development are roads with twists and turns. In Africa, as the president’s visit will expose, the turns are now positive. We would be well advised to contribute to the progress, to invest in the promise, and to bolster the push for human rights, development and democracy.

Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.

June 7th, 2013

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'...some of Orwell’s message still rings true. It is precisely because technological progress has greatly increased the scope for official (and corporate) infringement on personal privacy that we need more restrictions on who can access personal data, and we need our political leaders to take a stand on this issue. Obama still hasn’t got the message. Speaking on Friday, he defended the seizure of Americans’ phone records, and he also reiterated the argument that it was all perfectly legal and Congress had gone along with it. “Nobody is listening to your telephone calls,” the President said. Are you feeling reassured?'

June 6th, 2013

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Both sides know they cannot afford to insult or bully—and neither man is known for it. More importantly, they know that history has been unkind to great powers who fail to come to an accommodation. Neither side wants conflict, but, as of today, neither can exclude the possibility. That is a powerful motivator…The summit in the desert will be the rare case in which neither side can afford to leave empty-handed—or to run the table.

more.

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art: photo of President Xi Jinping and President Obama is from 2012

June 6th, 2013

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Many of the things that presidents do…aren’t explicitly in the Constitution, and many of the things we associate with the presidency weren’t done for years…after the Constitution was adopted. A president just set a precedent, and it stuck. For a minor example, there’s the president’s Saturday radio address, invented by Ronald Reagan and then copied by everyone since, although Barack Obama added a twist with YouTube versions…Everything from cabinet meetings to press conferences to “pardoning” Thanksgiving turkeys is part of the slowly built-up White House job requirements. Congress, on the other hand, has its role well delineated in the Constitution…the framers knew all about Congresses and parliaments—but they were inventing the presidency from scratch. There had never been anything like it.

more.

Many of the things that presidents do…aren’t explicitly in the Constitution, and many of the things we associate with the presidency weren’t done for years…after the Constitution was adopted. A president just set a precedent, and it stuck. For a minor example, there’s the president’s Saturday radio address, invented by Ronald Reagan and then copied by everyone since, although Barack Obama added a twist with YouTube versions…Everything from cabinet meetings to press conferences to “pardoning” Thanksgiving turkeys is part of the slowly built-up White House job requirements. Congress, on the other hand, has its role well delineated in the Constitution…the framers knew all about Congresses and parliaments—but they were inventing the presidency from scratch. There had never been anything like it.

more.

June 5th, 2013

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On Wednesday, Obama announced that Rice would be getting a new position as National Security Adviser; she will replace Tom Donilon. Samantha Power will take her job at the U.N. He called Rice “outstanding” and Power “a relentless advocate for American interests and values”…It is striking to see two women, both in their forties, both with young children, fill these roles at the same time, although other women have held the jobs before: Jeane Kirkpatrick and Condoleezza Rice, who, like Hillary Clinton, became Secretary of State.

more.

On Wednesday, Obama announced that Rice would be getting a new position as National Security Adviser; she will replace Tom Donilon. Samantha Power will take her job at the U.N. He called Rice “outstanding” and Power “a relentless advocate for American interests and values”…It is striking to see two women, both in their forties, both with young children, fill these roles at the same time, although other women have held the jobs before: Jeane Kirkpatrick and Condoleezza Rice, who, like Hillary Clinton, became Secretary of State.

more.

June 2nd, 2013

thesmithian

The 2012 election…formed nothing less than “a hinge of history.”

The 2012 election…formed nothing less than “a hinge of history.”

May 30th, 2013

thesmithian

Longtime Democratic Congressman Mike Honda now has an upstart challenger to take his seat in California’s 17th District in 2014. Ro Khanna, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the Obama Administration, has assembled a team of tech-savvy campaign gurus to challenge Rep. Honda. Many of Khanna’s staff members worked on the Obama campaign, and bring deep experience in using data and analytics to target messages and reach out to voters.

more. plus: it looks like President Obama is going with Honda.

Longtime Democratic Congressman Mike Honda now has an upstart challenger to take his seat in California’s 17^th District in 2014. Ro Khanna, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the Obama Administration, has assembled a team of tech-savvy campaign gurus to challenge Rep. Honda. Many of Khanna’s staff members worked on the Obama campaign, and bring deep experience in using data and analytics to target messages and reach out to voters.

more. plus: it looks like President Obama is going with Honda.

May 29th, 2013

thesmithian

…as Christie said on Friday and Obama repeated Tuesday: the [Jersey] Shore is very much back and open for business. Hooray for that…here was an example in which the government did what it said it would do.

more.

…as Christie said on Friday and Obama repeated Tuesday: the [Jersey] Shore is very much back and open for business. Hooray for that…here was an example in which the government did what it said it would do.

more.

May 23rd, 2013

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President Obama raised the question of whether the long-term costs of drone strikes, including the reported killings of innocent civilians and declining image of America in many Muslim countries, may outweigh the short-term benefits of eliminating specific militants. The month after a drone strike killed the American-born terrorist leader Anwar al-Awlaki, another drone strike mistakenly killed his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, who had set off into the Yemeni desert in search of his father.

Shreeya Sinha, Digital Editor, Foreign Desk, the New York Times

May 21st, 2013

thesmithian

‘Too bad that Republicans don’t sing the praises of the First Amendment when the White House is held by the G.O.P. In fact, they do the exact opposite…’

…In fact, they did the exact opposite when the Republican administration does the exact same thing that is now at the center of the Obama scandal involving the Associated Press—that is, seizing phone records of reporters. (Please note: The issue here isn’t whether they are right or wrong. What I’m talking about is the utter hypocrisy of the G.O.P. on this matter.) Let’s take the most important disclosure of a classified program that occurred in my lifetime: the 2005 article in The New York Times that revealed the existence of the program to allow the government to wiretap Americans and others in the United States without a warrant if it was part of a national-security investigation. Somehow, I don’t remember Republicans banging the First Amendment drum when that story came out— instead, they were calling for reporters to be charged with treason, which could have led to them being executed.

bold, ours. more, here.

May 21st, 2013

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I increasingly think of Obama as walking a tiny, little rope suspended across a Grand Canyon. Through four and a half years he has mainly kept his footing, in a way that becomes cumulatively surprising—and I say that even while disagreeing with many of his policies, notably including the recent security-state extensions. Every now and then…we see how hard what he is doing is.

James Fallows, at the Atlantic

May 19th, 2013

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…no real connection has been directly made between these scandals and the president. And, I’d say, he’s buoyed somewhat because the economy here is better than any in Europe—and less vulnerable than Japan’s current Keynesian jolt—and because he’s still a broadly liked president…the press corps needed a storyline, rather than just three stories. But sometimes the line falls apart for lack of evidence (at least among the non-GOP base).

Andrew Sullivan, at TDD, in regard to the fact that