Obama

By John Terrett in Americas on November 6th, 2011
President Obama on tour at the General Motors' assembly plant in Detroit,

A year from now Americans will be voting in one of the most important presidential elections ever; on a backdrop that is likely to be the harshest economic downturn in 80 years.

The mid-western state of Michigan has voted Democrat in the last five presidential cycles and it will be a key state in November 2012.

Mr Obama has spent a lot of money and time on Michigan in the past four years but many wonder if he's done enough to entice voters to go for him again in a state that has a Republican governor and legislator?

Al Jazeera English sent me to Michigan to find out if I could find any green shoots of economic recovery. I found them, but let’s not kid ourselves.

The city of Detroit will run out of money next March unless deals can be struck with the unions. There's still grinding poverty in Michigan - especially in Detroit and Grand Rapids.

By Patty Culhane in Americas on May 25th, 2011

It always amazes me how much life is disrupted for any city that hosts a sitting US president. In the times I have been part of the TV pool - the press that follows the president - I have to say you can’t really see the disruptions. The streets, people and signs pass in a hurried blur. From the outside it is painfully clear the effect it has.

In Dublin, Obama’s visit caused most bridges to be closed, the trams were running only occasionally and it seemed the whole of the city had set out on foot on a very blustery day.

By John Terrett in Americas on October 14th, 2010
Photo by GALLO/GETTY

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, has warned that a court-ordered halt to a ban on openly gay military personnel could have "enormous consequences".

A day after a judge halted the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy (or DADT), Gates said he'd prefer that Congress, not a court, settle the issue.

Under the policy, gay people can serve in the military but face expulsion if their sexuality is revealed.

Here at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, you get the impression that people living near this army base don't really worry too much about DADT. This man told me:

"I'm a retired army lieutenant colonel. What people do in their spare time has no effect on their ability to serve in the military."

A federal judge in California issued an injunction against the 17-year-old rule on the grounds it restricted free speech, lacked legal recourse, and damaged recruiting opportunities at a time of two wars.

By Clayton Swisher in Middle East on June 4th, 2010
Photo by AFP

So much for helping our coverage of the Netanyahu visit.  I arrived in Washington, DC, last week thinking that would be my mission.  Instead I found myself - like the rest of Washington - reacting to the Flotilla crisis.
 
As I reported, the vast majority of Americans would have seen a highly skewed presentation of those events as reported by the dominant cable news channels.   TV is the preferred way most Americans get their news each day.  And the effects that has on US foreign policy is telling.  MJ Rosenberg at Media Matters Action Network summed it up best.

By John Terrett in Americas on March 17th, 2010
Photo by AFP
Hundreds of Tea Party activists rallied outside the US Congress on Tuesday in protest at President Barack Obama’s almost $900bn healthcare reform.
 
The group of mostly rightwing grassroots protesters are opposed to the way the administration is driving healthcare through congress.
 
They called it a "Surge Against Obamacare." 
 
It was a rally for conservatives and Tea Party activists who are determined to stop the president’s healthcare reform which is now - as they see it - being forced through the House of Representatives and senate
 
 Grandma isn’t shovel ready.
 
 
By John Terrett in Americas on March 15th, 2010
obamapoint.jpg
 
President Obama was on the road again on Monday, selling his healthcare overhaul plan one last time as Congress began the process that is expected to lead to a bill being signed within weeks, if not days.
 
As Obama told his audience near Cleveland how the Republicans have blocked almost every attempt to bring about reform, someone at the back shouted to him, "Courage!"
By Marwan Bishara in Imperium on February 17th, 2010
EPA

"What is Iran hiding?" asked Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, rhetorically.

It is, she concluded on the basis of "mounting evidence" - read circumstantial evidence - developing "nuclear weapons" and that is not acceptable to the US.

True, Iran is not coming clean on its intentions over its nuclear programme. Rather it is doing the absolute minimum under its International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations to underline how its nuclear programme is civilian in nature, when UN resolutions and mounting suspicion require more.

But states are in the business of hiding their intentions, especially concerning national security and sovereignty. If they were forthcoming and transparent, intelligence services would not exist.

By Marwan Bishara in Imperium on January 26th, 2010

empgetty5565.jpg

Osama bin Laden must be laughing his head off. As soon as he reportedly releases an audio tape of a poorly written note by him or one of his companions, droves of 'terrorologists', think-tankers, specialised linguists and war journalists jump in to analyse each and every phrase in the hope of finding something new.
 
So many preoccupied by so little.

By Teymoor Nabili in Americas, Business on December 13th, 2009
Photo by GALLO/GETTY

Yesterday I blogged about  Rolling Stone magazine's critique of President Obama, in particular of his financial team.

Matt Taibbi argued that a cabal of bankers, all inextricably linked to Robert Rubin, have forced Obama to fall into line behind a financial policy designed to maintain Wall Street in its current form.

Today, The American Prospect has hit back with "The Errors of Matt Taibbi", in which they accuse him of:

a nightmare of a story [...] a factual mess, a conspiracy theorist's dream [that] doesn't even indict Obama for his real failures

By Rob Reynolds in Americas on November 30th, 2009
Photo by EPA

On Tuesday, Barack Obama, the US president will go before cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point - and a national and worldwide television audience - to announce his plan and strategy for Afghanistan.

He’s expected to say he will send something in the order of 30,000 extra troops, perhaps as many as 35,000. He is also going to outline a plan and a time frame for turning responsibility for the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda over to the shaky and corrupt Afghan government, so that American forces can be brought home eventually.

I think the actual number of troops is not the important thing. 30,000 or 40,000 or even 100,000 or 300,000 troops would still be too few, if the goal is to entirely wipe out the Taliban. What is important is how Obama conveys to the American people the mission in Afghanistan.

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