November 08, 2008

Requirements for Obama appointees

Obama had almost certainly picked on Rahm Emanuel as his WH chief of staff even before last Tuesday. But he told us yesterday that the next appointees-- which will be...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:25 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

November 06, 2008

An Egyptian-American at Grant Park

My friend Blayne Amir Sayed, an Egyptian-American medical researcher, lives in Chicago with his talented wife Amenah and their daughter. Blayne and Amenah are both observant Muslims, and for what...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:08 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

November 05, 2008

Obama draws out the best in others

I just listened to the very gracious and supportive words that George W. Bush said about Pres.-elect Obama this morning on the steps of the White House. Last night, John...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:49 PM | Fulltext link (15 comments)

America enters the 21st century

Okay, it's a bit late, but I think it's happening. For the past eight years it has felt as if we being thrown back into some of the worst years...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:27 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

Obama's key cabinet picks...

... Won't be announced very soon, if I heard David Axelrod right yesterday. He was asked on MSNBC when Obama would be announcing his top picks, and I believe the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:21 AM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

"The Reign of Witches" ending.

210 years ago on June 4th, Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Taylor, with words of wisdom that speak as clearly to recent ills as to Jefferson's day. Jefferson then was...
Posted by Scott Harrop at 10:15 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

November 04, 2008

Yes, we did!

It's been almost an hour now since CNN called the election for Obama. Virginia put it over the top and then, at the top of the hour, California came in...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:53 PM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

Obama discussing HIV/AIDS in South Africa

Thanks to Dominic who sent me the link to this YouTube video of a meeting Sen. Obama had in August 2006 with some leaders and township-based activists in South Africa's...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:50 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

November 03, 2008

US elections: What non-US readers want

Most JWN readers from around the world seem to expect Barack Obama to win tomorrow's presidential election in the US. And though, by and large, they also seem glad that...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:59 AM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

November 02, 2008

Biggest items on next Prez's plate

Here's a good question: Why would anyone want to become president of the United States at a time of such huge and multifaceted crises? Well, I guess two years ago,...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:45 AM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

October 31, 2008

Non-US citizens: What do you want from the next US president?

I've always been happy that Just World News has attracted a considerable readership, and numerous contributions to the Comments boards, from outside the United States. The policies of the US...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:56 PM | Fulltext link (33 comments)

October 27, 2008

Syria raid, additional notes

I see that Pat Lang is speculating that the raid might have been some kind of rogue operation on the part of the US Special Forces Command. I certainly respect...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:35 PM | Fulltext link (17 comments)

Attack on Syria: White House misjudgments

Without a doubt, last night's attack by heliborne US forces against a farm compound inside Syria must have been authorized by the President or Vice-President himself. Josh Landis has provided...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:11 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

October 23, 2008

'Bipartisan' group urges US escalation vs. Iran

I think it is too late now for the 'bomb Iran' networks that are deeply dug into various portions of the US political elite to launch an 'October surprise,' i.e....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 06:24 PM | Fulltext link (13 comments)

Obama on Iraq, Afghanistan

Time magazine's Joe Klein has the transcript of his new interview with Obama up on the web. Obama gives his description of the meeting he had in Iraq with Petraeus...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:41 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

October 20, 2008

The world-- voting Obama

So "three guys from Iceland" have done something a lot more useful and interesting than set up financial derivatives to drive their country into bankruptcy. (Sorry, guys, I couldn't the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:14 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

October 19, 2008

Bachman-Palin Overdrive (BPO)

Rookie Congressperson Michele Bachman is making quite a Palin-esque name for herself. On Thursday, Palin in North Carolina foolishly gushed over how she loved appearing in "pro-American" parts of the...
Posted by Scott Harrop at 10:46 PM | Fulltext link (11 comments)

Thunder on the Right: Noonan, Buckley, etc.

Colin Powell just endorsed Obama for President. George W. Bush's former Secretary of State says he was concerned by the intense negativity of the McCain campaign and by the Sarah...
Posted by Scott Harrop at 08:19 AM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

October 13, 2008

McCain was slurring Arabs

Kudos to Josh Marshall and CNN who now have video from in front of Gayle Quinnell, the Minnesota woman who at a McCain event last Friday said she was scared...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:40 PM | Fulltext link (16 comments)

October 12, 2008

Vile hate: Pres. Bush also needs to speak & act on it

It is now not enough that McCain and Palin should speak out against the wave of vile ethnic & religious hatred that is sweeping through some portions of the Republican...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:53 PM | Fulltext link (9 comments)

The costs of Paulson's mistakes

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson made numerous mistakes in the crucial early phases of his response to the current crisis. (Not to mention the antecedent mistakes he and his predecessors made...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:22 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

Anti-Obama hate machine escalates attacks

Like, apparently, 27 million other Americans, last week I received an unsolicited copy of the DVD "Obsession" in my mailbox. The original movie from which it is taken was made...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:35 PM | Fulltext link (12 comments)

October 07, 2008

Debate live-blogging #2

10:02 Audience member Phil Elliot asked how the US's economic woes will affect the country's ability to be a peacemaker. McCain answered totally about the US's ability to field an...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:18 PM | Fulltext link (20 comments)

Obama-McCain debate live-blogging, #1

9:40 Obama's been doing very well explaining his tax policy proposals in a clear and compelling way. The questions have virtually all been about the economy until now. McCain's been...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:49 PM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

October 02, 2008

Veep debate special

I missed the first 25 minutes but saw all the rest. Bottom line: Sarah Palin had evidently been very thoroughly prepped for it, and spoke with much more familiarity about...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:57 PM | Fulltext link (21 comments)

Cellular Surprise for Political Polling?

Even as we enjoy new capabilities for gauging political opinion around the world, a nagging technology development haunts opinion polling here in the USA. The uncertainty suggests room for "surprises"...
Posted by Scott Harrop at 10:51 AM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

September 30, 2008

Not reassured

... by Bush's little address this morning. As I wrote last night, he still doesn't seem remotely as if he has a handle on the broad social, political, economic, and...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:17 AM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

September 29, 2008

Goode 'smearing' Perriello

Virgil Goode, the hard-right GOP candidate in my own district's congressional race has come out with a television ad that literally tries to "smear" Democratic candidate Tom Perriello as being...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:50 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

September 16, 2008

Pro-McCain Jewish group smearing Obama, Brzezinski

There's been quite a flurry in the blogosphere over some well-authenticated reports that the Republican Jewish Coalition has been conducting a poll of Jewish voters in selected states in which...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:06 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

Alaskan women repudiating Palin

Alaskan blogger AKMuckraker has been doing some excellent blogging about Sarah Palin from her home state. In this post, she describes a big anti-Palin, pro-Obama rally that materialized with very...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:30 PM | Fulltext link (28 comments)

Kissinger urges talks with Iran, no preconditions

Yesterday, Henry Kissinger once again expressed support for opening direct talks with Iran over its nuclear enrichment program, without preconditions. He did that at a forum where four other Secretaries...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:40 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

September 15, 2008

Two big crises for Washington: Financial meltdown and Af-Pak escalation

Washington's decisionmakers are today confronted with two huge and hard-to-handle crises. On Wall Street the large brokerage firm Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, after Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson decided the US...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:37 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

September 12, 2008

Palin's performance: Insulting and very scary

McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his vice-president is an insult to all American voters, regardless of gender. It also raises the disturbing prospect-- in the event she becomes President--...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:17 AM | Fulltext link (33 comments)

September 08, 2008

Women discuss Sarah Palin

So I was at the checkout counter in our great locally owned foodstore here in Charlottesville this morning, and I bumped into Deborah McDowell, a chaired prof in the University...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:06 AM | Fulltext link (26 comments)

September 01, 2008

Palin and the 3 a.m. phone call

I have long experienced at first hand the way that some men try to belittle and exclude women in public life through aggressive and often painful forms of name-calling and...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:25 PM | Fulltext link (39 comments)

August 30, 2008

"Resolution": Palin's goal in Iraq

McCain's VP pick Sarah Palin has left almost no record at all of having said or thought anything about foreign affairs. However, Matt Yglesias found this audio record of her...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:43 AM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

August 14, 2008

Perriello and Goode in Charlottesville

Today, the two candidates for Virginia's 5th Congressional District had their first sustained public exchange of views. I made a point of going along to the forum, which was held...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:27 AM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

July 24, 2008

Obama on Palestine and Iran

During his time in Israel/Palestine, Obama made two important statements. On Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy he reaffirmed his longer-standing pledge to "make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a key diplomatic priority" when...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:03 PM | Fulltext link (16 comments)

July 21, 2008

Obama and Maliki, face to face

They met today in the Green Zone. That Reuters report has no further details. But it notes that Obama, has also welcomed a suggestion by Maliki that a timetable be...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:23 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

June 21, 2008

Uh-Oh-Bama!

The candidate was reported as saying in Florida today: "[T]here is no doubt that Iran poses an extraordinary threat to Israel and Israel is always justified in making decisions that...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:41 PM | Fulltext link (43 comments)

June 14, 2008

Obama, Iraq, and Washington's unilateralist echo-chamber

So if Barack Obama wins the presidential election, what will his policy toward Iraq actually be in 2009? The answer to this question is extremely important to our country and...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:51 PM | Fulltext link (16 comments)

June 04, 2008

Obama and Israel

Barack Obama made the obligatory candidate's visit to AIPAC's annual convention today. Look, I've been in this country through six presidential elections. I don't recall a single major candidate who...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:48 PM | Fulltext link (21 comments)

A general election-- and a show trial?

So finally, we know who the two main candidates will be in our general election here in the US this November. Yesterday evening, Barack Obama pulled past the magic number...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:07 AM | Fulltext link (5 comments)

March 18, 2008

Obama's speech confirms his leadership qualities

Today, in the (Quaker-founded) City of Brotherly Love, Sen. Barack Obama gave what is probably the most important speech of his entire presidential campaign. It was wise, thoughtful, honest, redemptive,...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:03 PM | Fulltext link (26 comments)

March 07, 2008

Obama, Clinton, (and Samantha Power)

Personally, I have not a moment's doubt about Barack Obama being ready "from Day One" to be President of the United States. I have spoken with numerous people who know...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:53 AM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

February 20, 2008

Obama's 'Power-ful' advisor on the qualities of leaders

Yesterday I went to a talk that key Barack Obama foreign-affairs advisor Samantha Power gave at the New America Foundation on her new book, Chasing the Flame, a biography of...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:30 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

February 12, 2008

Live-blogging Obama's "Potomac" breakthrough

We did it! In Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, we voted Barack Obama overwhelmingly in the Democratic primary. I'm watching Obama giving the victory speech. He's doing it...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:17 PM | Fulltext link (15 comments)

January 05, 2008

I'm in Lebanon; thoughts on Obama, etc

We traveled to Lebanon on Thursday/Friday. Learned in Frankfurt airport about Barack Obama's big victory in Iowa. Great news!! Got to Beirut and discovered my bag hadn't. So I'm sitting...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:09 AM | Fulltext link (24 comments)

October 29, 2007

Obama in person (and Periello)

I was one of about 5-6,000 people who crammed into Charlottesville's tented "pavillion" this evening to hear Barack Obama speak this evening. He was considerably better than I had expected....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:52 PM | Fulltext link (25 comments)