Musings on Politics, Art and Technology

Dear President-elect Obama,

Please think big when it comes time to choose your cabinet. You campaigned on change, and that is what your constituents are expecting. This list of recommendations is designed to reflect racial and gender diversity, recognize those who have served in the name of change, and those who clearly wish to have a say in policy making.

Secretary of State Barbara Lee: cast the sole vote against a resolution authorizing Bush to use military force against those associated with the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. "There must be some of us who say, 'Let's step back for a moment and think through the implications of our actions today -- let us more fully understand the consequences.'"

Secretary of the Treasury Paul Krugman: won 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics. Proposes a "new New Deal".

Secretary of Defense Dennis Kuchinich: proposed the creation of a cabinet level Department of Peace in 2001 and 2003. The two-time candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination has also favored cutting the Pentagon budget by 15%.

Attorney General Cynthia McKinney: 2008 Green Party Presidential nominee and former congresswoman, ran on, among other things, an overhaul of the criminal justice system, including abolishing the death penalty and for-profit prisons.

Secretary of the Interior Winona LaDuke: Ralph Nader's running mate for the Green party Vice Presidential nomination in 2004. A Native American and environmentalist.

Secretary of Agriculture Michael Pollen: best selling author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, writes in favor of a whole new approach towards food production.

Secretary of Commerce Ralph Nader: famous consumer advocate and many-time presidential nominee.

Secretary of Labor John Edwards: ran for the presidency in 2008 on a platform to eliminate poverty in 30 years. Side note: yes, Edwards has admitted to having an extramarital affair, but that should not disqualify him. Extra marital affairs are legal grounds for divorce, but are not illegal. Also, many other men in politics including JFK have been given a free pass for doing the same or worse. This does not mean, Mr. Obama, that I think it would be fine to sleep around behind your wife's back.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Howard Dean: medical doctor and former governor of Vermont, where he expanded a program of universal health care for children and pregnant women.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Hillary Clinton: deserves a slot in the cabinet (far away from foreign policy), this one will do.

Secretary of Transportation Sheila Jackson-Lee: as congresswoman, has worked on transportation, infrastructure, and energy grid issues.

Secretary of Energy Al Gore: shared the Nobel Peace prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Spearheaded a new environmental movement with Oscar winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Secretary of Education Jesse Jackson Jr: has advocated for a constitutional amendment that would guarantee equal quality education.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Cindy Sheehan : lost her son Casey in the 2nd Iraq War, and has since been vocally critical of the Bush Administration's treatment of returning soldiers. Ran (and lost) against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her congressional seat in San Francisco in 2008.

Secretary of Homeland Security Bill Richardson: Originally I was going to write that this cabinet posting should be abolished, but then realized that a large part of the department has to do with immigration, a serious issue. The New Mexico governor, a former Ambassador to the UN, and former Energy Secretary, ran for the 2008 presidential nomination with a compassionate view on immigration.

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Daryl Hannah: actress and environmental activist. Although not a professional bureaucrat, she couldn't be worse than any Bush appointee.

Director of the National Drug Control Policy Willie Nelson: singer and marijuana legalization advocate. Check out these stats comparing US drug use with that of the Netherlands, where marijuana is treated as a "soft drug", separate from hard drugs like cocaine, heroin, or meth.


Mr. President-elect, I sincerely hope you'll keep some of these issues in mind as you choose your advisors.

Sincerely,

Jill
A Citizen

Labels: Obama cabinet

It seems indicative of a return of Japanese rising nationalism and imperialism for the country to be throwing off it's obligations to conform to world law and instead throw a sop to it's politically powerful fishing industry and nationalist sentiments.

Of course America and Australia would have some legitimate grounds for complaint about this poaching of sea life if they too had not already shown utter contempt for world law by attempting to colonise Iraq. If either of those countries had any real spine they would follow Australian Senator Bob Browns suggestion to send their Navy vessels to document and confront the environmental vandalism of the Japanese whaling industry.

Instead thankfully we have groups like Greenpeace and the Sea Shepards to confront and bear witness to this stealing of the worlds biodiversity.

Labels: Whaling

Couldn't have said it better. Once again, from the excellent war in context news service. It dovetails nicely with Naomi Klein's Disaster Capitalism thesis.

If you've been living under a rock, or worse, subscribing to the bogus claims of the Bush administration to be bringing democracy to Iraq, the recently leaked legislation for Iraq's oil (written by U.S. consultants in English and then translated) should prove the popular claim that Iraq was invaded to seize control of it's oil for multinational companies, the majority of which are U.S owned.

The legislation includes splitting the proceeds into three regions (Kurd, Sunni and Shiite), effectively dismembering the country. Most galling is the control of all oil decisions by an Iraqi Federal Oil and Gas Council composed to include “executive managers from important related petroleum companies.” that is, Big Oil.

The ever-reliable Warincontext.org provided the sources.

(Guest blog by Jill):

The Center for Food Safety reported last week on a decision against the US Department of Agriculture:

In what will likely be a precedent-setting ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer of the Northern District of California decided in favor of farmers, consumers, and environmentalists who filed a suit calling the USDA's approval of genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa a threat to farmers' livelihoods and a risk to the environment.  Judge Breyer ordered that a full Environmental Impact Statement must be carried out on "Roundup Ready" alfalfa, the GE variety developed by Monsanto and Forage Genetics.  The decision may prevent this season's sales and planting of Monsanto's GE alfalfa and future submissions of other GE crops for commercial deregulation.

"Roundup Ready" alfalfa is resistant to Monsanto's herbicide--which means farmers can use the herbicide on crops without damaging the crop itself. Environmentalists and organic farmers fear cross-pollination between genetically modified alfalfa and conventional or organic alfalfa. To date, no environmental tests have been conducted because the USDA has not required it. By US law, foods labeled "organic" cannot be genetically modified, so organic farmers have legitimate concerns if their crops become tainted with GM pollen. The European Union does not allow genetically modified imports, though in 2006 some GM rice slipped in--perhaps through contamination.

No labeling of GM foods is required in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration is the agency that regulates food safety and new products. Genetically engineered crops are not considered "new" by the FDA because of the "substantial equivalence" to conventional crops. The most common genetically modified crops are soy, corn, canola, and cotton. This Christian Science Monitor article takes a good look at the issue; they quote the USDA as estimating that 89% of all soy grown in the US is genetically modified. The surest way to avoid GM food is to buy organic, but since there is potential for cross pollination, there are no guarantees once these seeds are unleashed.

As to the effects on one's health? Here's a great quote from the journal Nature in 1999, that seems not to have been heeded:

The need for careful monitoring is urgent, given that the introduction of thousands of GM foods on a global scale appears imminent, says Suzanne Wuerthele, a risk assessor at the US Environmental Protection Agency, speaking in a personal capacity.

This view is supported by Ben Miflin, former director of the Institute of Arable Crops at Rothamsted, near London, who is a proponent of the potential benefits of genetic modification of crops. He argues that, under current monitoring conditions, any unanticipated health impact of such foods would need to be a "monumental disaster" to be detectable.

Miflin points out that a general increase in gastrointestinal disorders, for example, would be difficult to attribute to a particular food, given the diverse possible origins of such symptoms. "So, yes, there is an advantage for going slowly."

William Clark presciently addressed reasons for the Bush administrations drive to invade Iraq in 2002. He hypothesised the preservation of the petrodollar as the monopoly oil reserve currency as the real (under-reported) reason to invade Iraq (since Saddam in Nov 2000 changed to selling his oil in Euros). Clark recently released a new article that expanded his petrocurrency monopoly hypothesis on Iran.

In short, Iran is about to bring online the Kish island oil bourse, an online exchange for oil, that can be purchased in U.S. dollars, Euros, or Iranian rials. While he notes this will not initially impact the status of the USD as the petrocurrency (and therefore required to be held in cash reserves across the world, stabilising the USD despite massive trade deficits), over time it, together with the possibility of Russia transacting oil sales in Euros, will lead to a reduction in the dollars strength, with greenbacks returning to the U.S federal reserve.

His hypothesis is a well thought one, it notes the attempts by the Bush/Cheney administration to apply financial sanctions against Iran, and helps explain the bellicose actions of the administration towards Iran. Kidnapping Iranian embassy staff is a direct mirror of the Iranian students take over of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979-80. It's an action designed to provoke more conflict with Iran. With a greater conflict, the hope is to force through a U.N. security council resolution (or provide sufficient justification echoed in the corporate media for a unilateral decision) that would impose financial ("smart") sanctions against Iran, critically focused on preventing it's banking sector transacting in Euros.

With the U.S. intelligence services so rightly chastised for their failures on WMD assessment we can be reasonably sure their assessment of Iran's capabilities is accurate and well reported. They have noted the problems Iran has had in developing nuclear reactors - no real threat currently exists. But the threat to the U.S. economy by the return of steadily weakening U.S. dollars is a real danger that requires a conflict to 1) justify the incredible military costs 2) impose financial sanctions 3) paint Democrats as unpatriotic for not supporting an escalation.

Peter Tinley, lead tactical planner for Australia's SAS special forces in the US has spoken out against the Howard governments intentions in helping to invade and occupy Iraq. He made a stunning admission:

"When I pressed them (US intelligence) for more specific imagery or information regarding locations or likely locations of WMD they confessed, off the record, that there had not been any tangible sighting of any WMD or WMD enabling equipment for some years,"

As news.com.au reports (a Murdoch company, no less!):

He said the Government had broken a moral contract with its defence force in sending it to an "immoral war".

(Shout out to Brett for the heads-up)