U.S.
China Post
Agence France Presse
[IS THAT BECAUSE SECRETARY OF STATE CLINTON BELIEVES IN SURRENDERING U.S. SOVEREIGNTY FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAKING DIPLOMATIC KUMBAYA?? DOES MS. CLINTON BELIEVE THAT A EUROPEAN CONTINENTAL CIVIL LAW PREVENTIVE JUSTICE-BASED GLOBAL GOVERNANCE LEGAL FRAMEWORK
ANCHORED IN THE UNITED NATIONS IS THE BEST WAY TO GO? CAN MS. CLINTON CONFIRM THAT SUCH A FRAMEWORK WOULD NOT UNDERMINE THE U.S. COMMON LAW & FREE MARKET SYSTEMS, AND THE INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS & FREEDOMS GUARANTEED TO ALL AMERICANS BY THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND ITS ACCOMPANYING BILL OF RIGHTS? IS THIS "CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN"?]
Her comments came at the first summit to tackle environmental and territorial issues affecting the
At the meeting, the United States and Norway said that the melting of glaciers was opening new navigation routes in the Arctic, thus creating economic opportunities -- including in transportation and energy -- for neighboring countries, but with that came new responsibility.
"The changes under way in the
The diplomatic chief said she and President Barack Obama were committed to having the US Congress ratify the Law of the Sea Convention, a United Nations text on maritime rights drafted in 1982.
The
[CONGRESS NEVER RATIFIED THE TREATY DURING 2007 BECAUSE IT LACKED THE VOTES. AND, THAT OCCURRED BECAUSE CONGRESS DID NOT FULFILL ITS CONSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITY OF VETTING THE ENVIRONMENTAL COMPONENT OF THIS 200 + PAGE TREATY. THE CURRENT CONGRESSIONAL MAJORITY AND THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION DO NOT APPEAR TO WANT TO SHARE WITH THE AMERICAN PUBLIC THEIR EXTENSIVE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THIS DIMENSION OF THE UNCLOS. THE FAILURE OF CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT COMMITTEES TO CONVENE PUBLIC HEARINGS ON SUCH SUBJECT MATTER, AND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S FAILURE TO CALL FOR SUCH HEARINGS, SUGGESTS THAT THE PRESIDENT'S CAMPAIGN MANTRA FOR A 'NEW BEGINNING IN WASHINGTON' - "TRANSPARENCY & OPEN and INCLUSIVE PUBLIC POLICY DEBATE" MAY LIKELY HAVE BEEN PURELY RHETORICAL.]
Global warming, she added, "raises the possibility of new energy exploration, which will, of course, have additional impacts on our environment."
[MS. CLINTON AND HER STATE DEPARTMENT ARE MOST ASSUREDLY DRINKING FROM THE AL GORE-EUROPEAN UNION KOOL-AID FOUNTAIN!!]
These resources constitute 13 percent of the world's untapped reserves of oil and 30 percent of reserves of natural gas.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store noted that merchandise between the Japanese
He called for bordering countries, which are members of the Arctic Council, to cooperate closely to avoid an escalation of conflict.
But the
Participants also spoke about the A
ntarctic, which is protectedby a treaty signed in
"We have no time to lose in tackling this crisis" and take new measures to protect the region, said Clinton after having recalled the collapse over the weekend of an ice bridge that holds in place the Wilkins Ice Shelf, seen as an alarming sign of melting of the glaciers.
[AS WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF RAHM EMANUEL PREVIOUSLY STATED FOR THE RECORD, "YOU NEVER WANT A SERIOUS CRISIS TO GO TO WASTE. AND WHAT I MEAN BY THAT IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO THINGS YOU THINK YOU COULD NOT DO BEFORE." See:
http://allthenewsthatfits.wordpress.com/2008/11/21/rahm-emanuel-dont-waste-a-serious-crisis
She said that Obama had provided Congress with an annex to the treaty for ratification. The annex set the obligations of signatories in case of an environmental catastrophe in the South Pole region.
[DEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA & SECRETARY OF STATE CLINTON - WHY NOT ENGAGE IN SOME CONSTITUTIONALLY WARRANTED TRANSPARENCY & DUE PROCESS YOU ADVOCATE AS PART OF THE NEW SPIRIT OF 'CHANGE' IN WASHINGTON? AND, WHY HAVEN'T THE ADMINISTRATION & CONGRESS YET SHARED WITH THE AMERICAN PUBLIC INFORMATION ABOUT THE LIABILITY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGES ANNEX VI OF THE MADRID ENVIRONMENTAL PROTOCOL OF THE ANTARCTIC TREATY TRANSMITTED TO THE CONGRESS DURING EASTER WEEK 2009??]
http://www.itssd.org/Polar%20Sea%20Ice%20Melts%20Away%20in%20Time%20for%20Antarctic%20Easter%20Surprise%20III.pdf ]
The
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122721278056345271.html
In Crisis,
By GERALD F. SEIB
Wall Street Journal
November 21, 2008
As the economic signs grow ever more grim, so do the problems facing the incoming Obama administration.
That's one way of looking at things. Here's another:
As the economic signs grow ever more grim, the opportunities for the Obama administration to drive through its agenda actually are getting better.
The thing about a crisis -- and crisis doesn't seem too strong a word for the economic mess right now -- is that it creates a sense of urgency. Actions that once appeared optional suddenly seem essential. Moves that might have been made at a leisurely pace are desired instantly.
Therein lies the opportunity for President-elect Barack Obama. His plans for an activist government agenda are in many ways being given a boost by this crisis atmosphere and the nearly universal call for the government to do something fast to stimulate the economy.
This opportunity isn't lost on the
new president and his team. "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama's new chief of staff, told a Wall Street Journal conference of top corporate chief executives this week.
He elaborated: "Things that we had postponed for too long, that were long-term, are now immediate and must be dealt with. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."
Listen
Rahm Emanuel addresses leaders at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council.
He ticked off some areas where he thought new doors were opening: energy, health, education, tax policy, regulatory reforms. The current atmosphere, he added, even makes bipartisanship easier: "The good news, I suppose, if you want to see a silver lining, is that the problems are big enough that they lend themselves to ideas from both parties for the solution."
Mr. Emanuel noted, correctly, that the
Conversely, history points to examples of leaders who have used crises to seize opportunities. Most obviously, President Franklin Roosevelt took advantage of economic trauma in the 1930s to drive through a new economic agenda, as did President Ronald Reagan with his tax cuts in 1981.
The lesson holds true in foreign policy as well. Only the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, and its shock to the Middle East status quo, made it possible for President Jimmy Carter to move in and negotiate the historic Camp David peace accords between
And so it is for Team Obama now. The risk, of course, is today's opportunities will tempt the administration to overreach, lifting government spending so high that the deficit hangover at the other end of the cycle is intolerable, or injecting government so far into the marketplace that bipartisan support evaporates.
But for now, the call for government action is so universal that the playing field is wide open. With interest rates approaching zero, the Federal Reserve Board is nearly out of interest-rate ammunition to stimulate an economy sinking into recession; Fed policy makers likely are quietly praying for fiscal stimulus to start filling the void.
The chief executives gathered at the Journal conference this week called for the new administration to enact a fiscal-stimulus package of at least $300 billion -- perhaps double the amount of stimulus such a group likely would have called for just a few weeks ago.
That creates an opening through which Mr. Obama can drive a fair amount of his domestic agenda. Certainly the field is open for some immediate form of the president-elect's middle-class tax cut to become part of a stimulus package.
By the same token, the yearning for government spending on "infrastructure" to stimulate economic activity creates an opening for the new president to push the kind of green projects that fit his call for a transition to alternative energy sources, including new kinds of mass-transit systems. And the Obama call for government "investment" in alternative energies will be easier to turn into reality if it, too, can be cloaked as part of stimulus spending.
At the same time, as thousands of additional Americans lose jobs in the recession that lies ahead, they also will lose their employer-provided health insurance and swell the ranks of the nation's uninsured. That will add a bit of rocket fuel to the Obama call for universal health coverage. And certainly the broad dissatisfaction with the way financial markets were regulated will make it easier to rebuild regulatory structures.
The crisis also presents the Obama team with an opportunity that isn't so obvious: using economic distress to step back from the protectionist cliff Democrats edged toward during the election campaign.
A time of global economic distress isn't a good time to construct barriers to international trade. Conversely, it may be a good time to help both stressed American consumers and distressed developing-world economies by lowering tariffs on some goods made abroad. One test of the Obama administration's economic philosophy is whether it is as eager to take advantage of that opening as some of the others now before it.
