As a member of so many political e-mail lists, I occasionally receive an interesting one. Such a message arrived in my inbox yesterday. It’s purportedly a memo sent by John Podesta, the Obama transition team’s co-chair, about transparency during the transition process. It reads like a policy memo, so presumably that’s what it is. I don’t really know any more than that, but the content is interesting and, if it turns out to actually be the Obama Administration’s policy, refreshing:
MEMORANDUM From: John Podesta To: All Obama-Biden Transition Project Staff Date: December 4, 2008 Re: “Seat at the Table” Transparency Policy — EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
Overview: As an extension of the unprecedented ethics guidelines already in place for the Obama-Biden Transition Project, we take another significant step towards transparency of our efforts for the American people. Every day, we meet with organizations who present ideas for the Transition and the Administration, both orally and in writing. We want to ensure that we give the American people a “seat at the table” and that we receive the benefit of their feedback.
Accordingly, any documents from official meetings with outside organizations will be posted on our website for people to review and comment on. In addition to presenting ideas as individuals at www.change.gov, the American people deserve a “seat at the table” as we receive input from organizations and make decisions. In the interest of protecting the personal privacy of individuals, this policy does not apply to personnel matters and hiring recommendations…
The rest is at Cujo’s place. This idea of participatory democracy is going to take some getting used to after George “Bubble Boy” Bush and Dick “Man-Sized Safe” Cheney.
I’ve not been yammering endlessly about Obama lately, but it’s not because I’m disillusioned or indifferent. It’s more due to the fact that a) there are so many stupid Cons begging for a smackin’ and b) I’m a little wary of turning this blog into an endless stream of praise. I have so few quibbles with the job he’s doing so far that I’d likely end up sounding like a rabid fangirl. Nice to know I’m with the majority of Americans on that one.
What’s that old Woody Allen line? “Ninety percent of life is just showing up”? Reading about Barack Obama’s appearance at the annual meeting of the National Governor’s Association, it seems he scored points for just showing up, but he did even more by knowing what he was talking about.
No one could remember a meeting quite like this.
President-elect Barack Obama met with the nation’s governors Tuesday to hear their tales of economic pain — and won some points by telling Republicans in the room that he welcomed disagreements, “so feel free,” one participant recalled.
[snip]
For Democratic governors, it was a welcome relief after years of meeting with a Republican president they found to be unfamiliar with details.
“The contrast with our meeting with the sitting president was fairly stark,” said Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, recalling a “much more controlled” environment with President George W. Bush.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, the incoming head of the DGA, was more blunt: “Just to have an administration, a president, a vice president, who listened, engaged, and came to meeting prepared — it’s a brand new idea.” […]
Obama impressed the governors with his ability to get into the policy weeds on the thorny question, demonstrating a detailed knowledge of FMAPs, the state-by-state formula which determines how much money the federal government sends to help cover Medicaid costs.
It is desperately sad that such behavior from an incoming President of the United States should be so shocking. Obama’s thoughtfulness, knowledge, and interest in running the government well should be the norm, not an exception deemed “unprecedented.”
Aside from the batshit insane chorus on the far right, and Firedoglake’s ongoing campaign against Eric Holder’s nomination, hosannas are all I’ve been hearing. Even the folks who were a little wary seem to be warming to a remarkable degree. It’s probably the novelty value of having a man who not only knows his shit, but doesn’t think he knows it all. People also have seemed to be going into shock over the fact that he’s working on building a strong, smart, and effective cabinet rather than an ideologically pure one. He’s got an ambitious agenda, and all indications so far are that he’s got a realistic enough view of the way of the world to know how to get most of it done.
There’s also the fact that the man absorbs information like a sponge. Take his appetite for intelligence – he apparently can’t get enough of it. Something tells me that if a frantic analyst rushes him a memo saying that a terrorist leader is planning a strike, he won’t pat the man on the head, congratulate him for the ass-covering, and shoo him away.
The contrast to the bumbling fool currently keeping the Oval Office chair warm fair takes my breath away.
I think America started a little something. First, we have Canada’s left flexing its muscles and getting ready to pop Stephen Harper in the face. Even Stéphane Dion, whom I’d heard had all the vim and vigor of a piece of wet paper, is breathing some fire. And they’re not the only ones:
In England the political news is equally remarkable. This summer Gordon Brown was watching as safe Labor seats were being taken by opposition parties by huge majorities. He watched as the popular mayor of London was trounced by a loose lipped Tory new comer. His own standing in the polls, if put through in an election, would have left only a few dozen Labor MPs, and he would lose his own seat. Now the Brown Bounce as it is called, has him within the statistical margin of error of the Tories, with Labor voters “coming home” to their party. The unifying thread, in both cases, is the promise of massive Keynesian fiscal stimulus, and active response to the crisis. The Tories both in the Dominion of Canada, and the United Kingdom, have promised cuts and question marks, being dragged to admitting the need for action little and late. Dion, elected as a care taker leader, has managed to pull off one of the most spectacular negotiations in Canadian Parliamentary history, and Brown has come back from the political dead on the back of aggressive response, fiscal stimulus, and promising a direction which is avowedly rooted liberal and social democratic ideas. It’s something for American politicians to heed.
Seems right wings the world over are about to get clipped.
Good.
P.S. If you’re wondering if Canada’s conservative party is full of the same lying sacks of shit that infest the Cons here, the answer is yes.
You can shoot me for the pun later. But it’s true: the progressive moon is on the rise. Here’s the latest great good news:
In a stinging rebuke of the Blue Dog caucus, Henry Waxman has defeated John Dingell for Chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Why, it seems like only yesterday the Blue Dogs were sniffing that the Steering Committee who recommended Waxman were a bunch of unrepentant hippies who didn’t reflect the overall makeup of the Democratic caucus. (In fact, it was.)
This is a huge defeat for the Blue Dogs, who were hoping to use Dingell as a roadblock to keep any meaningful change from happening with regard to issues under the Committee’s jurisdiction — telecommunications and health care, energy and environmental protection, interstate commerce and consumer protection.
This, more than anything, could be the biggest change in the federal government in 2009 and beyond. Waxman’s Safe Climate Act sets the targets needed to mitigate the worst effects of global warming. It now becomes the working document in the House for anti-global warming legislation. And his constituency doesn’t include a major polluting industry.
From a policy standpoint, it’s a major progressive victory.
Indeed it is. And this, with Daschle’s helming DHHS, tells me that we are, at long last, going to see some actual progress.
I feel like I can breathe again after nearly a decade of drowning. Anyone else experiencing the same?
Forgive me if I’m a little breathless. There’s been a flurry of news around Obama’s transition, and, well. Damn. I’ve spent the last several minutes on YouTube watching my favorite Scorpions video and grinning like an idiot. If you were hoping for a trip to the woodshed, I’m afraid you’ll be going away very disappointed indeed.
My biggest concern about Rahm Emanuel becoming the next White House chief of staff is his record of incrementalism.
With that in mind, it was hard not to find his comments yesterday very encouraging. Talking to a group of CEOs and business leaders, Emanuel said incremental changes wouldn’t be enough, and urged his audience to work with the Obama administration’s push for universal health care.
“When it gets rough out there, a lot of business leaders get out of the car and say, ‘We’re OK with minor reform.’ I’m challenging you today, we’re going to have to do big, serious things,” Rahm Emanuel said, speaking to The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council, a conference convened to elicit corporate opinion on the challenges facing the new president. […]
Mr. Emanuel promised that a major economic stimulus would be “the first order of business” for Mr. Obama when he takes office Jan. 20. The focus of spending will be on infrastructure, specifically “green infrastructure,” which he said would include mass transit, upgraded electricity transmission lines, “smart” electrical meters that allow consumers to save money by using electricity at off-peak hours, and universal broadband Internet access, which he said would encourage telecommuting.
He stressed that the new administration would “throw long and deep,” taking advantage of the economic crisis to push wholesale changes in health care, taxes, financial re-regulation and energy. “The American people in two successive elections have voted for change, and change cannot be allowed to die on the doorsteps of Washington,” Mr. Emanuel said.
[snip]
This didn’t sound like an incrementalist, promising to go slow and work around the edges; it sounded like someone ready to help the president make real changes real soon.
Methinks Obama’s inspired somebody. Watching Rahm on a “yes, we can!” tear is going to be purely awesome.
In a sign that he may adopt a comprehensive approach to solving the health care crisis, President-elect Barack Obama has chosen former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Ezra Klein points out, “you don’t tap the former Senate Majority Leader to run your health care bureaucracy. That’s not his skill set. You tap him to get your health care plan through Congress.” Earlier this year, during an address at the Families USA Action Conference, Daschle concurred with the need to ‘think big’ on reform:
Incremental change in our system is no longer a viable option. Instead we need comprehensive reform. In growing numbers the American people are demanding that we do something. Our goal should be to build what current and retired members of Congress have today, and make that available for all Americans.
No, not just secretary – I said czar and I meant czar:
Daschle is also set to take on the position of “health care czar” in the Obama White House. CNN’s Ed Henry is also reporting he negotiated the “health care czar” position in order to be “the point person on all White House health-related issues.”
You wanted to know if Obama’s serious about health care reform? There’s your answer. Not to mention this is the second person closely associated with the Center for American Progress that Obama’s tapped. Extraordinary. He may govern from center-left, but he’s salting progressives in there, and I think that’s a sign of what he means to do.
As expected, the Obama team announces via press release that David Axelrod — one of the “architects” of Obama’s victory — is heading to the White House to serve as senior adviser to the President.
[snip]
Lisa Brown, Staff Secretary
Lisa Brown is the Executive Director of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. Lisa was Counsel to Vice President Gore from September 1999 through January 2001, and Deputy Counsel from April 1997 through August 1999…
[snip]
Greg Craig, White House Counsel
Gregory B. Craig served under President Bill Clinton as Assistant to the President and Special Counsel. Prior to his appointment to that post he served for two years as Director of Policy Planning under Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Craig also worked for Senator Edward M. Kennedy as Senior Advisor on Defense, Foreign Policy and National Security from 1984-1988…
[snip]
Chris Lu, Cabinet Secretary
Christopher P. Lu has worked for President-elect Obama in a number of roles over the past four years. He was Legislative Director and Acting Chief of Staff in Obama’s Senate office, as well as a policy advisor during the presidential campaign. Chris is now the Executive Director of the Obama-Biden Transition Project, where he manages the day-to-day operations of the transition. From 1997 to 2005, he was Deputy Chief Counsel to Rep. Henry A. Waxman on the Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee (now the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee)…
If there’s a theme here, it’s that Obama’s not getting stupid with the Team of Rivals meme – he’ll have a few rivals in there, but what I’m mostly seeing so far in the official announcements is a group of tough, experienced Dems who can carry his vision forward.
And all of this was excellent. It would have been enough to make me happy indeed, but then Oba
ma deftly topped my sundae with the best cherry evah:
As most of you know, I firmly supported Janet Napolitano for Attorney General and the new alarm administration. It looks as if Eric Holder will be in the Attorney General instead, but it CNN has just announced that Napolitano will be the choice for Department of Homeland security. Here is the Reuters headline:
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s top choice to lead the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing multiple sources.
The Democratic governor, a supporter and campaigner for Obama’s presidential campaign, had been reported to be on a short list of people to fill cabinet posts in the new administration.
Assuming she makes vetting and is confirmed, Janet will make a fantastic Secretary of DHS. Some of the skills and abilities I pointed out as qualifications for AG will serve her very well as Homeland Security.
Understand, my darlings: I utterly adore Janet Napolitano. She was my governor, and I was justifiably proud of that fact. Alas, Arizona, it looks like you’re going to lose her, but your loss is the country’s gain.
She really is fabulous.
So is all this news. It’s fantastic to not wince in agony at every announcement coming out of Washington these days.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go back to my Scorpions.
In recent weeks, there has been rampant media speculation that President Barack Obama would back off his campaign pledges to end torture.
The Wall Street Journal recently wrote, “President-elect Barack Obama is unlikely to radically overhaul controversial Bush administration intelligence policies.” In addition, some in the blogosphere have raised concerns about the fact that a key intelligence adviser to Obama has supported the Bush administration’s enhanced interrogation techniques.
CBS: There are a number of different things you can do early on pertaining to executive orders.
OBAMA: Right.
CBS: One of them is to shut down Guantanamo Bay. Another is to change interrogation methods that are used by U.S. troops. Are those things that you plan to take early action on?
OBAMA: Yes. I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture, and I’m going to make sure that we don’t torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world.
For his many faults, you gotta love the politician in California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that admits that essentially, the majority of Americans want the government to focus on Democratic Party platforms, not the rigid ideology of the current Republican Party of cutting taxes above all else.
[snip]
Remember that so many times there’s dialogue about, you know, we have to go back to our core values. What is that? What is core? How far does core go back in history in America, the word core? Does it go back 30 years? Does it go back 50 years? Because we know that Teddy Roosevelt talked about universal health care. So they’re off the core for a long time ago already. He has talked about protecting our environment. So they’ve been off for a long time on that. I mean, let’s be honest. Ronald Reagan — let’s go to Eisenhower, for instance. Eisenhower has built the highway system in America and he’s poured billions of dollars into infrastructure. Where Republicans today say, well, that’s spending. We shouldn’t spend. That’s not spending. That’s investing in the future of America.
So there’s a lot of things that they have been off on, if they want to go and talk about the core values. But maybe their definition of core values is maybe different. But I mean, so I think it’s all nonsense talk. I think if they just talk about one thing, what do we need now? Now, America needs to be rebuilt, because we haven’t really rebuilt America for decades. So we need to rebuild America, fix the bridges, fix the highways, fix the buildings, tunnels and all of those kind of things we need to do. And then we have to go and create great relationships with our partners overseas, with the world, and to build those relationships again. And we have to take care of health care. We have to take care of our environment. And we have to build an energy future. Those are the things that people want right now. And I know in the poll numbers in America — I mean in California, that’s what the people want.
Synchronicity is a fascinating thing, and sometimes it gives me hope.
A few days ago, I read a report in Think Progress’s Wonk Room regarding Rahm Emanuel’s extremist father and the Israel/Palestine conflict that has caused so much grief and tragedy. It’s a harsh look at the realities of the situation, and the things America does that only make it worse. The author talks about how if Rahm’s family had been Palestinian terrorists rather than Jewish extremists, he wouldn’t have been able to distance himself from his father’s remarks. He likely wouldn’t be serving our nation’s government at all:
This is because of the double standard that applies to the discussion of the Israel-Palestine conflict in the U.S. Americans identify much more closely with Israel than they do with the Palestinians, and thus tend to treat negative information about the former as exceptional, and negative information about the latter as the rule. Leaving aside why this is the case, the fact is that it places certain strictures on U.S. policy options, and create serious consequences both for the U.S.’s reputation and for the situation on the ground for Palestinians. More »
For example, responding to reports of increasing Israeli settler violence and intimidation, a few weeks ago Steve Clemons asked why the U.S. and Israel “don’t work to classify factions of settler extremists — organizing to propogate violence — as terror organizations or terror-supporting individuals.”
Such classification of these groups and/or individuals would allow the freezing of their financial assets in the United States and would create penalties for those who aided and abetted in their violence. Some very wealthy Americans are financing some of the expansionist settler activity in occupied Palestinian territories — and creating penalties for this assistance could be one way of squelching the violent dimensions of settler activity.
Such classification of violent settler extremists in Israel as terrorists would give both the Israeli and U.S. governments tools that will help protect Israel’s political leadership from tactics of intimidation and violence and would help to generate a new equilibrium in the region that satisfies both Israel’s legitimate security needs and the imperative of a viable Palestinian state.
Clemons’ proposal is a good and reasonable one. It’s disgraceful that organizations such as the Hebron Fund can openly raise funds to support violence without any fear of public censure, let alone prosecution. And make no mistake, these funds support violence, which in turn fuels Palestinian hatred and terrorism.
If we really wanted to help lessen violence in the West Bank, shutting off the flow of American money to settler groups is one way, and there’s no intellectually consistent argument against doing it. The real argument against doing it on the U.S. end is that it’s too politically costly. Most Americans simply aren’t used to recognizing Israeli extremist violence for what it is, or its consequences for what they are, and our leaders really have no incentive to help us do so. The few who try can always expect to be viciously attacked, their associations rigorously explored and their friends impugned on television by half-wits, and eventually face a surprisingly well-funded challenger on election day. There’s very little upside.
I know the truth of that. I’ve studied both sides of the conflict. Some of my presentations in college explored it from the point of view of the Palestinians. I sympathize with both sides. The Jews who came to Palestine were fleeing hatred, violence, and attempts to exterminate them. They felt they were returning home. The Palestinians were forced from their lands to make way for them, and haven’t been treated well at all. Part of that, they’ve brought on themselves, but their situation is horrible and when people feel helpless and victimized, they’re going to strike out. Without both sides making an effort to understand each other, with extremists on both sides making it impossible to find a solution that works for them both, there seemed no hope of peace at all.
Despite these very real factors, deep changes are occurring inside Israel itself. Little-reported, for some reason, were the outgoing words of former Likudnik Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, long of the Israeli hard right, when he went against all of his past and stated that Israel would eventually have to give up almost all the lands it conquered in 1967, including the Arab parts of Jerusalem.
Also this fall, the Israeli government announced it would cut off funding for illegal settlement outposts and crack down on extremist squatters (thus acknowledging Israel’s complicity in their formation), after its domestic security service director, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin, told a cabinet meeting that he is “very concerned” that Jewish extremists were going to attempt to assassinate moderate Israeli leaders.
Indeed, outgoing Prime Minister Olmert also warned at the meeting, showing the degree of concern that is growing even among former members of the anti-peace right: “There is a group, that is not small, of wild people who behave in a way that threatens proper law and governance. … This is unacceptable and we cannot countenance it.”
If Israel stops supporting those illegal settlements and works to negotiate a viable homeland for the Palestinians, if America stops the flow of funds that allow Israeli extremists to derail any hope for peace, and if both of them throw their full weight into the peace process, it’s possible we’ll see finally see a solution. It’s not going to be easy. Palestinian and Israeli extremists don’t want peace – they want to get their way. But I think it’s possible that Israel and America together can foster the conditions necessary to reduce the violence enough for lasting solutions to take hold.
Years ago, during my research for those presentations, I read of Israelis and Palestinians who worked together, learned to understand and appreciate each other, and wanted to live side-by-side as good neighbors. The will is there. It always has been. With the extremists shut down, those good people will finally have the breathing room they need to become good neighbors.
It looks like the Israeli government finally has the will to try. With Obama in office, I believe America will, too. But we’re going to have to restrain our own extremists so that they can bring about those necessary changes.
Considering America’s had its fill of neocon extremism over the last eight years, I think we’ve got a chance to make that happen.
“Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.
A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.
In some instances, Obama would be quickly delivering on promises he made during his two-year campaign, while in others he would be embracing Clinton-era policies upended by President Bush during his eight years in office.
“The kind of regulations they are looking at” are those imposed by Bush for “overtly political” reasons, in pursuit of what Democrats say was a partisan Republican agenda, said Dan Mendelson, a former associate administrator for health in the Clinton administration’s Office of Management and Budget. The list of executive orders targeted by Obama’s team could well get longer in the coming days, as Bush’s appointees rush to enact a number of last-minute policies in an effort to extend his legacy.”
The specific changes said to be under consideration include lifting limits on embryonic stem cell research, lifting the ban on international family planning groups counseling women on abortion, “the Bush administration’s decision last December to deny California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles”, and “declaring that carbon dioxide emissions are endangering human welfare, following an EPA task force recommendation last December that Bush and his aides shunned in order to protect the utility and auto industries.”
These are wonderful changes. After the last eight years, the very idea that they might occur not as the result of a long drawn-out battle, but just like that, is amazing.
We can’t expect miracles. Obama faces furious Rethug opposition, and we might lose a few battles… but then again, I don’t think the Rethugs have ever faced a man like this.
That’s it. I’m over it…I’m done. All that hard work down the fucking drain. I can’t take it anymore. 72 hours of disappointment after disappointment, and it’s only going to get worse.
First there was the victory celebration in Grant Park, where Obama didn’t single me out and thank me personally for all of my hard work; all of the hours I put in making calls and knocking on doors, and writing letters to editors, and, most importantly, all of my blogging. Where the fuck does he get off?!?
Then I find out that barely five seconds after he became the President Elect, he did exactly what they said he was going to do: meet with terrorists without pre-conditions! They even said so on the TeeVee, yup yup, he’s going to sit down with George W. Bush!
Sarcasm: It’s aaaallliiiiiivvvvveeee!
Enjoy your first weekend with Obama as our President-Elect, my darlings.
