To renew our faith in Obama that he might just really be what we all hoped he would be, yesterday he addressed the muslim world from Kairo, Egypt, in what many talking heads around the world already likens to historic speeches like I have a dream and I am a berliner in terms of impact.
While this might be an exaggeration (we’ll know in a decade), it was an insanely impressive speech utilizing Baracks mastery of rhetoric in a way we haven’t heard since the campaign days.
What is quite interesting is that he passionately states the necessity of a two state solution, which surprisingly received massive applause from a skeptic muslim audience that consisted of quite a few groups that, as many extremist portions of islam such as Hamas, usually disregards the Israeli states existence.
With gripping use of his own life history and constant referrals to the bright side if Islamic traditions and teachings (yes, there are those!) and calling out for finding common human ground instead of pursuing political differences, this is surely a message that firmly brings this mideast situation one step further in the right direction. In fact, his very respectful and understanding tone rewarded him with actual standing ovations in the end. This must surely be one of the most impressive moments in his career, without a doubt.
“Tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear,” said the president, who recalled hearing prayer calls of “azaan” at dawn and dusk while living in Indonesia as a boy.
At the same time, he said the same principle must apply in reverse. “Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire.”
See the whole speech here (and actually see the whole thing – it’s worth it):
On Friday Obama stated that cybercrime prevention is getting higher priority, and will now be run from the White House. His strategy is compiled in a public document that will also be distributed to companies most vulnerable to cyberattacks. This is news because Bush previous strategy was, of course, top secret to pretty much everyone.
Obama also promised to bar the federal goverment from the rampant wiretapping of private networks during the Bush years. But how would we know they’ve stopped..?
Rachel Maddows reports the following, which should really make everyone wonder – what IS Obama doing? This is not the type of thing most of us expected from him, the ability for the state to keep prisoners in detention indefinitely, without trial or limits, for crimes they might commit! Check out the video here:
It seemed among the easiest of his transparency pledges and is entirely under his control, but President Obama is finagling his promise to post bills on the White House Web site for comment for five days before he signs them.
Mr. Obama last week signed four bills, each just a day or two after Congress passed and sent it over to him.
Update: As there are now quite a few places that are linking to this outdated post, I would like to direct you to also read this post with some of his newer efforts.
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Due to the recent pause here on WIOD, I am sure our readers would really like to know what they’ve missed!
Well, this President seems to be working in some kind of alternate timespace and it’s hardly possible to list every thing he’s been up to until now, but here’s a (incomplete) list of things that the administration has changed so far:
Reversed restrictions on stem cell research
Appointed an assistant to the president for science and technology policy
Created a foreclosure prevention fund for homeowners
Expanded loan programs for small businesses
Extended and indexed the 2007 Alternative Minimum Tax patch
Expanded eligibility for State Children’s Health Insurance Fund (SCHIP)
Expanded funding to train primary care providers and public health practitioners
Directed military leaders to end war in Iraq
Sent two additional brigades to Afghanistan
As promised gave a speech at a major Islamic forum in the first 100 days of his administration
Granted Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send money to Cuba
Restored funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne/JAG) program
Released presidential records
Now requires new hires to sign a form affirming their hiring was not due to political affiliation or contributions
Pushed for enactment of Matthew Shepard Act, which expands hate crime law to include sexual orientation and other factors
Created a White House Office on Urban Policy
Supported increased funding for the NEA
Funded a major expansion of AmeriCorps
Worked to overturn Ledbetter vs. Goodyear
Banned lobbyist gifts to executive employees
Pledged to weatherize 1 million homes per year
Invested in all types of alternative energy
Enacted tax credit for consumers for plug-in hybrid cars
Provided grants to encourage energy-efficient building codes
As promised appointed at least one Republican to the cabinet
Extended unemployment insurance benefits and temporarily suspended taxes on these benefits.
Ofcourse, we are still awaiting many of his biggest campaign promises and many of the major issues are still pretty shady on what he’s really going to do with. And to be fair, this list is some of the neat things Obama has done and not the bad – but I would be hard pressed to really find much concrete for such a list as the things that possibly can end up on that side are still in the works (for example the iraq war, bailout, stimulus, gitmo and ofcourse the haunting marijuana legalisation issue).
As (shockingly) many of you know, WIOD has been on a involuntary hiatus for a while. This due to various issues in meatspace for everyone involved which has forced us to prioritize the available time we have.
But even after the first few days something happened that I’ve never really experienced before on a blog project, or really in general – and I’ve been working with the web as an occupation for quite a number of years; people from all over started emailing and wondering what’s going on, urging us to continue and after a few weeks more or less begged us to give WIOD some love asap.
And I’m not talking solitary incidents, and I had no idea how appreciated this site is for so many people. Sure, we’ve got some statistics that says we’ve got a decent amount of visitors but still – the fervor! I am very flattered, and am sure Paul is as well.
Your support has not fallen on deaf ears, my friends. And as it happens, times are getting easier and there is now enough of it to keep track of Barack once more! So feedback really works, please keep it coming. Every little comment makes that post just so much more worth the effort.
As the first intense period (the classic 100 days) has passed, we will discontinue the “Day: x”-format and instead collect the interesting news and updates into a couple of weekly posts.
Well, it seems this issue just won’t go away for poor Obama. He’s tried his best to sidestep it so far, joking it away in his online town hall stunt in march.
In the “Citizen’s Briefing Book,” which compiles the results of an online project launched by President Obama’s transition office to solicit policy ideas from the citizenry, legalizing marijuana is the number one priority for the 125,000 or so participants.
To add even more credit to the Obama online crowd, another top priority was nerfing the church of scientologys tax exempt status and demanding the silly ban on online poker to be removed.
Sorry folks for all the endless white noise the last couple of weeks. Do not try to tune your screens, the fault is all ours.
Both me and Paul have been having a mighty busy and rough time that has left us having to spend our energy on other matters for a while. I do assure you, we have no plans on making this stop. The most likely path is that we will start posting but with a rather slower speed, a couple of posts a week or so.
We have received all your emails and thank you for your warm hearted support, and realise this site actually means a lot to you guys. So I’ll make it a priority to get it back on track asap.
And if you want to help us out, just let me know. Requirements: Really good writing skills, political interest and time enough to post at least one interesting post a week. Just use the spiffy contact us-link!
Again, sorry, but no worries. WIOD isn’t going anywhere.
After earlier in his career having stated he believed in decriminalization of Marijuana use, he made a major faux pas recently in an interactive town hall meeting that has created major waves in the online community. To be fair, dissing the entire “online audience” which is exactly the same crowd that raised half a billion dollars to put him where he is, was pretty dumb.
‘There was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high (sic, it was actually the number 1 question) and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation, and I don’t know what this says about the online audience,’ Mr. Obama said, drawing a laugh. He said he wanted to make sure the question got answered. ‘The answer is no, I don’t think that was a good strategy.’
The mistake followed by comments by a Hardvard professor and Ron Paul:
First, we apologize for the slump in activity last few days. The recession hits everyone!
Seems Obama can’t get a break appointing his nominees:
President Obama’s nominee for the No. 2 post at the Environmental Protection Agency dropped out, saying scrutiny of a group he was affiliated with was threatening to become “a distraction” for the administration.
The EPA announced the decision by Jonathan Cannon, nominated for the post of deputy EPA administrator, a day before he was scheduled to appear before a Senate panel considering his nomination.
