Truth & Consequences: Does the UN Still Matter?

With President Obama's foreign policy agenda the last two weeks spinning at a dizzying pace, the question today: Is the UN still relevant in US foreign policy. Or is it just a cool vacation spot with friendly guard dogs as my son found out this summer when he met Charlie (pictured at right). My guess is that Charlie was a bit busier this week.

Comment on the political cartoons posted here, and blog your brain.....Does the UN still matter?

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Diplomatic Spinning

(From CBS 2 School)

In the political world, spinning usually means shaping the news with you unique perspective. Barack Obama will show his version of spinning this busy week as he works to keep China plates, Russian tea cups and host of other foreign policy issues balanced and stable.

Unlike the circus performer who keeps dozens of plates spinning at the same time, a President’s job as chief diplomat never reaches a grand climax. His team must always keep the plates spinning with some occasional breakage and plenty of unexpected drama added over the course of the presidential term.

A look at last weekthe rest of this week in Obama’s foreign policy challenges reveals a dizzying fete for any head of state:

Europe The big news of the last week included Obama’s decision to move away from the Bush-era missile defense shield in Eastern Europe.

Russia loved the move as a gesture by the Americans to move its weapons off of Russia’s front porch. But Poland, the Czech Republic and other Eastern European allies are wondering if this news is a sign of a weaker relationship with the Americans.

Iran Because of the likelihood that Iran is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons, Team Obama is not willing to scrap the concept of a missile shield network. His administration announced its intent to move toward a smaller, more flexible missile shield that will initially be Naval based.

It’s also thought that his move away from Eastern Europe will help make the Russians more willing to pressure Iran away from developing nuclear weapons.

U.N. and G20 President Obama will have plenty of opportunities to discuss these and other topics with Russian President Dimitry Medvedev this week.The two leaders will be among the dozens of heads of state expected to attend the opening of the newest United Nations session this week.After the high- level meetings in New York, Obama will meet with more leaders at the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh at the end of the week. This group is comprised of the 20 largest economies in the world, and issues related to trade and the global recession will be addressed.

China Of course you can’t talk global economic politics without talking about and to the Chinese.Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao are expected to meet to discuss a range of issues including the recent move by the U.S. to hike tariffs on tires made in China.American labor unions have accused the Chinese of illegally dumping foreign-made tires on the U.S. market to drive down prices and harm American manufacturers. Obama responded by hiking the tariffs. The Chinese will certainly want to discuss this as well as the possibility of raising their tariffs on some American products.

Chicago In yet another example of the adage that “all politics is local,” President Obama will also spend the next week considering whether to help sell the idea of Chicago as an Olympic host.The International Olympic Committee will announce the host city in early October, and Obama is said to be considering a last-minute visit to the IOC meetings to push for his hometown.

If he makes the trip, we suggest that he also push for plate spinning to be added as an Olympic sport. He’d clearly be a frontrunner for the gold medal

Take 2 and call me in the morning, or next month

Committee ranking member Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) wore two pairs of glasses to read during a mark-up session on health-care reform legislation on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

Cup and saucer is a metaphor used to differentiate the roles played by the House of Representatives and United States Senate.

Markup - The process by which congressional committees and subcommittees debate, amend, and rewrite proposed legislation.

Although there have already been four health care bills passed through different Senate committees, the bill that President Obama has endorsed may look very different by the time it gets out of the mark-up process in the Finance Committee. If it ever does get out. If Wednesday was any indication, Senators seem to be planning on slowly dripping provisions of Sen. Max Baucus' bill on to the saucer. For those who criticize Congress often as a "Do Nothing Body," it seemed as though hot passions of the Town Halls had been replaced by the Washington (Hot) Water (for Tea) Torture treatment.

The Wall Street Journal Reports:

For a sample of what’s to come, check out the committee’s legislation page, which includes a whopping 564 proposed amendments spread over three categories (”reforming the health care delivery system,” “expanding health care coverage” and the ever-popular “financing comprehensive health care reform.”)

The amendments run the gamut from “protecting doctors from frivolous lawsuits” (#178) to “providing consumers with the same health insurance options as Members of Congress” (#329). These and all the rest are spelled over hundreds of pages here, here and here.

On the whole, the amendments head in directions you’d expect: As Politco noted, Republicans want fewer new taxes, and medical liability reform; amendments from Dems would do things like strengthen health insurance co-ops and boost tax credits to low- and middle-income families.

Lest you think that these amendments are mere posturing by minor Senate figures, check out this WSJ interview with Chairman Baucus, who is himself looking to make a pretty significant changes to the bill. Specifically, Baucus may cut the tax on high-end health benefits and increase subsidies to help some families buy health insurance.

MSNBC reports on Wednesday the committee debated for 2 hours an amendment that would put the legalize of the text of the entire bill on line. Sounds like a good idea, but maybe not so much.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Well, if you don't want to read the entire bill -- and its 564 proposed amendments -- you can have it read to you by professional voices:

Don't want to read the health care bill? How about listening to it? "Diane Havens, a voice-over actress from New Jersey, recently narrated a legal thriller by Will Nathan, “Book of Business,” and in a customer review at Audible.com, “Philip” lauded her “gripping narration.” Her latest voice-over project is also legal in nature, but decidedly slower paced: along with about 60 other voice actors, Ms. Havens volunteered to record the proposed health care bill, H.R. 3200, a 1,017-page doorstop. The reading, available free at hearthebill.org, clocks in just shy of 24 hours."

220 yrs of txt

(From CBS2School)

Our Founders delivered an amazing text to the citizens 220 years ago last week, and we need you to forward it on.

The U.S. Constitution was ratified 220 years ago on Sept. 17 making the United States the world’s longest lasting constitutional democracy.

Its fundamental elements still shape our daily political lives as separation of powers and checks and balances split power within our central government. Federalism still divides the functions of central and regional governments.

The original text was not infallible as it perpetuated the slave trade and allowed the institution of slavery to expand. In fact, the document has been amended 27 times to adjust the scope of government.

220 years later, the Constitution and its Bill of Rights still represent the nature of American politics in which government is empowered by the people but with limited impact in our personal lives.

In honor of national Constitution week, we’re asking you to review this text and pass it on in the form of a txt message from “we the ppl.”

America at Odds: Fiscal Federalism and Drinking Age

Fiscal Federalism is the power of the national government to influence state policies through grants. In 1984, when the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed, it essentially created a national drinking age of 21. States could still make it legal for those under 21 to drink alcohol, but it would forfeit federal highway funding.

In America at Odds By Edward Sidlow, Beth Henschen, the author's outline the "Bridging of the Tenth Amendment" by fiscal federalism. The education reform (ie: testing requirements) in the No Child Left Behind Act rely on fiscal federalism. States receive block grants and in return must meet federally imposed standards relating to testing and accountability. Many state officials express concern that the fiscal federalism used to put NCLB into practice is the beginning of a fundamental shift toward the national government's assumption of control over public schools. This might also be known as marble cake federalism.

http://books.google.com/books?id=0nqiWK6xC14C&pg=RA1-PA68&lpg=RA1-PA68&dq=Is+national+drinking+age+law+fiscal+federalism%3F&source=web&ots=RuslYwIs9R&sig=NwFUv79R6c-huLuAGciQcCBlcMM&hl=en

Why bring this up now? Well, there may be a growing movement to challenge the National Drinking Age Law. The presidents of 135 colleges across the country have signed a public statement calling on elected officials to "support an informed and dispassionate public debate over the effects of the 21 year-old drinking age." The statement, as detailed on The Amethyst Initiative website, reflects their belief that it is time to rethink the drinking age, that 21 as a LDA is not working, and that an unintended consequence of the 21 LDA is dangerous binge drinking.

It may be layered in a constitutional question. There are those who believe that fiscal federalism and its marbe cake mandates, are basically against the 10th Amendment that gives the power to make all non-constituional policy to the states. They argue that federal highway funding should be allocated in a layer cake format ie: highway funding and drinking age laws should not be mixed.

There are many special interest groups (ie: MADD) that will influence state legislatures and the Congress on this issue. The Tribune reports that more than two decades after the U.S. set the national drinking age at 21, a movement is gaining traction to revisit the issue and consider allowing Americans as young as 18 to legally consume alcohol.

Serious discussions already are under way in several states.

http://www.examiner.com/x-16039-DC-Parenting-College-Students-Examiner~y2009m9d7-College-presidents-ask-should-the-drinking-age-be-lowered2

Students take on an Army

(Classic Re-run post)

Linked here is who a group of Louisiana AP Government Students are battling for their right to free speech:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2006/corps.html

From the "Teaching the Levees.org" blog here is the story of the PSA Students ran and posted on YouTube and Levees.org that has been taken down (or has it?) by a "cease and desist" letter written by lawyers for the Army Corps of Engineers.
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=s_ezG_ahQOw


"Why Levees.org removed PSA from YouTube"
Levees.Org was served an order to Cease and Desist from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) on November 10, 2007. We were ordered to remove our funny student-made Public Service Announcement (PSA) from YouTube. If we refused, the ASCE promised “appropriate legal action.”
We stand behind every word of our PSA. But had we fired back with a rejection of the Cease and Desist, ASCE would likely have sued Levees.org not in Louisiana, but rather in Virginia where they are based. In that forum, it would have been difficult and expensive to find legal representation. Levees.Org does not possibly have the personnel, the resources nor the scope to take on a legal battle with a large powerful organization such as the ASCE.

Further, Levees.Org in no way wanted to bring harm to Newman school who was copied on the Cease and Desist.

So we removed our PSA video from YouTube late Tuesday night Nov 13, when the webmaster, my 17 year old son returned home from his State Cross Country meet.
Sandy Rosenthal, Exec Director, Levees.Org
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By the way, cease and desist is is a legal term used primarily in the United States [citation needed] which essentially means "to halt" or "to end" an action ("cease") and to refrain from doing it again in the future ("desist"). The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization.

The term is used in two different contexts. A cease-and-desist order can be issued by a judge or government authority, and has a well-defined legal meaning. In contrast, a cease-and-desist letter can be sent by anyone, although typically they are drafted by a lawyer.
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Full blogging coverage of the fansinating story of the power of students and the constitutional right to get the words out can be found here:

http://www.teachingthelevees.org/




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Madison v. Screech: Which T-Shirt Would They Wear?

This is a re-run Classic Poltical Warrior Post

James Madison might not ever imagined Bayside High School, but he described it perfectly when he wrote Federalist No. 10.

In his effort to promote the ratification of the Constitution, Madison helped write the Federalist papers to describe the theoretical underpinnings of this unique government.

Besides describing how the concept of Separation of Powers (Federalist No. 51) would work, he also spoke of how this new government would help to contain the archenemy of democracy: factions.

Madison argued that cliques are a natural part of society but were particularly detrimental in a democracy where the majority faction would naturally try to punish the minority factions. He argued that this oppressive situation was most likely to occur in smaller regions.

For instance Bayside High School-- with a student population of 10 -- had a majority faction led by Zac and the gang who ran the school. They led the football team. They ran the school newspaper. They even dictated the policies of their principal Mr. Belding...never considering the impact on the oppressed minority--the Geeks.

A large republic is like a large high school. No one faction can ever dominate. In a large republic, multiple factions have to unite behind common interests to enact public policy.

For instance, in order to win the electoral votes in a state like Florida, candidates vie to win support from the elderly, from Cuban-Americans, from African-Americans, and from the NASCAR crowd. Thus, candidates must tailor their message to unite groups that might have widely different interests.

So, when you were asked to read Federalist No. 10, you should have been sure to also watch a re-run of Saved by the Bell to gain fuller appreciation of the system that Madison was trying to prevent.

Saved by the Bell WVHS style

While the size of Waubonsie Valley, Madison would maintain, has kept any one faction from succeeding in a power grab, several sub-groups of Warrior seniors have tried separated themselves from the rest of the student body. No less than four "Senior" T-shirts have been worn by faction models. Senior Mean Girls, Senior Princesses. . . then there's the student council senior T, and the many AP faction statements.

Screech and his crew would be all about making the best T-shirt. It would probably make Madison simply want to scream. Linked is Federalist No. 10 for those of you want to get ahead of the bell.

http://www.thisnation.com/library/books/federalist/10.html

Obama on 60 Minutes

Watch CBS Videos Online
Despite the fact that Yousef and others said that 60 Minutes is a show for 70 year olds, I thought I'd link President Obama's appearance last night. Maybe you'll watch it here and post what you think.

This is the way the President can try to use the Bully Pulpit. It strikes me that Obama is going on television shows more than his predecessors (I can't even remember Bush going on 60 Minutes once), but it is still interesting to me and you can see it above. Here is a new poll (lots of questions and graphics) on Obamacare.