"Unbreakable"

Obama's statement about Israel should come as no surprise. It has always been this way with American presidents - the moment they had 'crossed' the lines of being slightly critical of Israel, they have to find a way to make up. When Obama says the U.S - Israel relationship is unbreakable, it virtually gives uncontrolled powers to Netanyahu's right wing government. In the past two years of Obama's presidency, Israel has rejected every request of the United States. The relentless building of settlements has continued and Israeli aggression even killed peace activists on the flotilla. No one is asking to withdraw support for Israel, but left to Israel alone, their actions are only inciting further hatred against them. The people who have been persecuted for centuries have become the persecutors themselves.

Why do I feel that Obama is not genuine in this aspect? I feel deep in his heart, he is critical of Israel's actions. I am not oblivious of the political realities of Israel influenced Obama advisers and supporters of democratic party. But, a true leader would have the courage and conviction to pursue the path of justice and fairness without alienating the support base. But, that is hard work and a gamble. Obama like every other politician chose the easy way out.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed

6 years ago when Khalid Sheik Mohammed was nabbed from his home in Pakistan, he looked only a bit sleepy and irritated.


Now after years in U.S. custody, he looks like Osama's brother.



Apparently, this is not the first time, Khalid Sheik had been behind bars in American prisons. According to wikipedia.

However, according to a US intelligence summary reported on August 29, 2009 by the Washington Post, his time in the U.S did lead him to become a terrorist. "KSM's limited and negative experience in the United States — which included a brief jail stay because of unpaid bills — almost certainly helped propel him on his path to becoming a terrorist," according to this intelligence summary.

The end game

I have been addicted to the news from Iran for the last few days - even in the middle of the night, I checked my twitter feeds to hear the latest from the streets of Iran. It has been an emotional roller coaster seeing the vast sea of humanity filling in every corner of Tehran, defying the supreme leader's order to end the demonstration.

For the longest time, I believed that Iran has more potential to evolve into a real democracy than most of its Arab neighbors. Compared to the monarchies of the Middle East, Iran's elections have been generally fair and square, of course with the catch that the power doesn't lie with the elected president, but it lies with the guardian counsel and supreme leader, who controls the revolutionary guard and the powerful militia. This time, people snapped when the only real thing in the Iranian democracy - the voting - turned out to be fraud; but I am not sure anymore whether it is just the fairness in elections that they want back. Or is it about curtailing the infinite powers of the parallel power structure built by Mullahs. If it is the latter, bloody days are ahead of us. It is ultimately the people's right to build a government they want and deserve; Mousavi's latest statement seems to indicate that the protests will continue. I hope he has a clear goal in mind on how to end this.

PS: How refreshing it is to see U.S keeping a low key and thus passively helping the cause in Iran. There are still reasons to like Obama :)

[picture courtesy: http://niacblog.wordpress.com]

Taxi to the other side

Watching 'Taxi to the other side' is disturbing. The story of the poor Afghan driver, Dilawar is emblematic of everything that is wrong with American policies - how terrorists are created day after day, how our tax dollars are spent to kill. The sinister game of death and violence continue in remote parts of the world - there is no let up even since Obama's presidency; many more Dilawars disappear into oblivion, yet we, as people in arguably the greatest democracy in the world, are unable to stop it - we will have 100 million people voting in a tv contest, but in matters that are important, our voices do not leave our throats -

A good possibility

There it is. Finally it is done. From the historic city of Cairo, Obama spoke like no other U.S. president before him. There are faultfinders on either side of the spectrum; some would argue that this is another lip service from another American president, others might find Obama to be less critical of the Islamic world in areas like democracy and human rights. But the reality is that forging friendship takes hard work - the confrontational approach of Bush got us to where we are today. 'You are either with us or against us!' got us to a world where most people chose to be against us. He had to do the rope walk, he couldn't pander to the forces the wish harm to the U.S, nor he could lecture the muslim nations on their problems - so he did what he had to, quite brilliantly.

Speeches of this stature are of enormous importance, but even more important are the actions that follow them. It will take a while before we can fathom the impact of Obama doctrine, but words would remain simply as words, as long as the U.S continues invasions of 'choice', conduct target killings on sovereign territories using drones defying international norms and torture its prisoners.  To stay as the moral authority of the world, U.S should live up to the ideals in which this nation was founded. Regardless of the recent reversals in his policy, In Obama, I still see that as a possibility! 

Do not move on

Obama, you can't have it both ways - you released the documents detailing the brutal interrogation methods used by the Bush administration, for which, I applaud you. But, your moveon.org doesn't impress me. It is an injustice to the victims, injustice to the numerous men and women who were asked to do the dirty work and serious blow to the moral standing of the United States in the world. 

Open Door to what?

I got Tom Frieman's article from New York Times forwarded to me from multiple sources yesterday. It is definitely pleasing for desis to see a prominent american columnist advocating for wider immigration when in fact that immigrants are probably the first ones to bear the brunt of lost jobs and an economy in peril - no wonder the brown blog, Sepia Mutiny had all praises for it. But is there any substance to his assertions? 

“If you do this, it will be one of the best things for India and one of the worst for Americans, [because] Indians will be forced to innovate at home,” said Subhash B. Dhar, a member of the executive council that runs Infosys, the well-known Indian technology company that sends Indian workers to the U.S. to support a wide range of firms. 

Really? I wonder why Indians are so hell-bent on pushing for this, if indeed this is good for India. Tom Friedman definitely got his head spinning seeing the Infosys campus in Bangalore, but the reality is that in this economic climate, there aren't enough jobs to give to the new immigrants. So the 2 million plus immigrants should stay on welfare? 

 “We will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate — no Indian bank today has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans.”

Yes, fresh off the boat, they will buy the properties here. Frieman should really find out about the H1B life cycle. Buying a home is neither a priority nor affordable for a temporary worker. 

I would have loved to have seen the stimulus package include a government-funded venture capital bank to help finance all the start-ups that are clearly not starting up today

Here, again, he is exposing his ignorance on how startups in silicon valley work. Money isn't the major ingredient for the startup to succeed. Often startups are started in tens of millions of dollars and sometimes even less. The passion for innovation coupled with a very tight and prudent management is what makes some of these startups successful - the success ratio even then is really small. If the government manages it, the success ratio will be even far less - I am no fan of Milton Friedman's economic theories, as a matter of fact, in light of the recent events, his ideas would be deemed unfit, but one thing he got right was that if people knew the government was behind certain initiatives, they would shift their behavior. A startup in its very essence gives value to innovation, speed, operational efficiency, and lack of red tape - every single of these is an issue with government managed programs.

The height of stupidity was when he quoted someone saying this.

He also cited a recent study by William R. Kerr of Harvard Business School and William F. Lincoln of the University of Michigan that “found that in periods when H-1B visa numbers went down, so did patent applications filed by immigrants [in the U.S.]. And when H-1B visa numbers went up, patent applications followed suit.”

Yes, when there are more immigrants, the patents filed by immigrants are more. That is genius!

Spending during Recession

What is one supposed to do in an economic downturn like the one we are experiencing now? With the people I speak to, I often seen the wide range of ideas from hiding the real money under the mattress to spend to boost the economy. The truth must be somewhere in the middle.

Today was a gloomy day around where I live. For the last few weeks, the weather was exceptionally warm and it was beginning to look like the winter was behind us, but that changed all of a sudden in typical california style. To get over the gloominess and to get my 4 year old S off my back, we set off to the near-by mall. I am not much of a shopper - my shopping normally revolves around thinking about buying something, rushing to the store, picking it up and never returning it even if it doesn't fit my needs well. So this time around, I had nothing to buy - S and I were just walking around.

With all the recession talk 24/7, I imagined a deserted parking lot, empty cashier lines and a far thinner crowd. But, was I wrong or what? The Macy's still had enough customers, Starbucks had a line that was spilling into the street, the counter bar in the restaurant was still milling with people. This may completely be a coincidence after all, but really the people are not reducing their spending yet? So, I looked around to see what the official statistics on consumer spending was - the consumer spending rose only 3.6% in all of 2008, the worst since 1961. Clearly, the spending habits have changed and I hope what I saw wasn't people spending away their severance payments! Sometimes when the disaster strikes, people's tendency is to pretend like nothing ever happened. Given nobody knows how long this one is going to last, that may not be a sound strategy at all.

Where does $800 billion go?

NYTimes has described the republicans as the milling crowd in front of a building on fire who won't let fire fighters in to fight the fire - this is exactly how I feel about the republicans - the bickering and the nit-picking of these supposedly 'patriotic' folks put the politicians in India look much more sophisticated. But, really, the calm and cool Obama himself has lashed out against these folks on a series of interviews last week.

This stimulus is much needed and most economists are wondering whether this is big enough - would a bunch of construction projects alone save this economy from collapsing? Japan who has been in recession since the 90s spent trillions of dollars in construction projects, every road, and every bridge that was ever dreamed of was built - but it still did not yield the results they expected. Why? Looking back, the economists are saying that the spending focussed too much on construction. There is a lesson to be learnt there. If you take a careful look at the 800 Billion dollar bill, while the republican nut jobs continue the theatrical protests, I am afraid that the part of the spending that republicans are bitching about is exactly what I think is too small. Frankly I don't care about the tax cuts - it hasn't worked in the past, it will not work in the future either - an example of a republican ideal that has been carried over for years with no single example to show for its validity.

Here is the 'wasteful' spending. Judge for yourself - where do you not want to spend?

• 
  
• Educational Investments ($141.6 billion):
• Tax cuts (275 billion)
• Health care investments ($112.1 billion):
• Welfare/unemployment ($102 billion):
• Infrastructure investments ($90 billion):
• Energy investments ($58 billion):
• Telecommunications investments
• • $650 million for Digital TV-to-analog converter box coupons and Digital TV education.
  • $350 million for a broadband data collection effort to allow states to track--and specifically, map--the availability of broadband access
  • $2.85 billion to implement a wireless and broadband deployment grants program, with $1 billion of that set going to wireless.

Voice of new America

President Obama's interview with Al-Arabiya is diplomacy at its finest. His first interview after becoming the president is mostly a rehash of what he has been saying all along, but well thought out and delivered.

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/01/27/65096.html

As John Stewart pointed out, this part is not something he has mentioned ever in American interviews though.

I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries.

War Machines of 21st century

Wired War isn't a page from a science fiction. It is a fascinating but chilling story on the evolution of warfare. NPR has an interview with the author of this book, P.W. Singer.

With the ease of playing a computer game, the designated 'soldiers' work out of their offices in California and Arizona to fly the unmanned drones over the desired targets half way across the world and they kill. The precision of their attacks and the legality of these operations are unknown. Detached from the battlegrounds, these 'soldiers', after their regular killings, go back to their homes and have dinner with their family. Some might argue that this is the natural evolution of war, but to me this is morally reprehensible. And if you think this is something of a prototype that has limited use, there are 5000+ of these in use. This is one way to reduce the American casualties, especially if you are not counting the deaths on the other side.

Listen to this transcript.

Horror in the office building

Today, around 4PM, the swat team officers with guns drawn surrounded our office building, police helicopters hovered over, later we heard on the radio that a laid off employee in the next office came back and killed three fellow employees. We don't know what drove this deranged mind to committing this over a job, but what we know for sure is that three people didn't make it home after work, and their loved ones will remember this day with horror. Among the dead is the CEO of the company and the V.P of business operations. This news hit the nerves especially since the downturn in the economy has just started to make an impact in the valley. This, coupled with the announcement from Sun Microsystems that they are going to lay off 6000 people, is ominous of the bad times awaiting the valley.

What a moment...

400 years after the first black slave was brought to the shores of America, 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and 50 years after black people could vote, here we are, at the doorsteps of a new era in the history of America, where an African American man has become the president of the United States of America. Seeing the hundreds of thousands that have poured into the streets of Chicago, white and black, people of all colors, this is an American moment and the spirit of this nation that continues to transform itself unfolds right here. This moment, we are living the dreams of a generation of Americans who paid dearly for a cause that took America from an apartheid society into a bastion of human rights. There are still wars to be fought, discriminations to be abolished, prejudices to be wiped out, but tonight, we enter a new era in America, a step in the right direction and a tribute to numerous Americans who gave their lives so that we could live this moment.

Changing Times...

At a town-hall event Friday in Minnesota, McCain took the microphone from a woman who had called Obama an Arab. McCain said, "No, ma'am," and he called Obama "a decent, family man."

Obama is not an arab, he is a family man! that's nice!

Obama-Biden ticket

From what little i know, i am thrilled about Obama-Biden ticket. A good track record of liberal voting, great insight into foreign relations and policies especially with respect to south asia and a generally likeable speaker. Sure, he may have mis-managed his own campaign; but his long career and records strengthen Obama's message. Oh boy, i can't wait to November!

Obama for 2008

Today, I am delighted. Senator Obama has claimed victory in this historic race. Hillary continues to be defiant - no surprise there. Now, the real work for Obama starts. It is easy to discredit the legacy of Bush, but no republican presidential candidate has ever associated himself with Bush's failed policies. They may all belong to the same party, but with Bush's current rating, the word is that the republican party members are not answering Bush's phone calls. The point is, there is much at stake here, another 8 years of republican party would be the beginning of the end of prosperity in this country. The smear machine of the republican party has started to get the ball rolling to discredit Obama and highlight his lack of experience. So, if it means that bringing Clintons would provide the guaranteed return of democratic power to the white house, I would support Clinton's vice presidency, by all means. 

A controversy over nothing

Let me be frank, I don't like Hillary Clinton. Still, I would vote for her, firstly, if I could vote, secondly, if she is the democratic nominee. I am all for Obama. But the recent controversy about her refering the RFK assassination is nothing other than a drama of the silly season in politics. Referring to those tragic days can evoke pain and discomfort, but I don't think she is mean enough to suggest about the safety of Senator Obama. I truly believe she only meant that other presidential candidates have been campaigning even in June for nomination. Lately, Hillary Clinton hasn't had good luck either with votes or with loose words; so, this too will be analyzed to death and add to the saga of her disgraceful exit from this race.

A trip worth nothing

Much has been talked about Mr. Bush and his inadequate leadership, writing anything about it would be stating the obvious. However he recent middle east trip would be marked by history as one of the least effective foreign trips an American president has ever made. His efforts to persuade the Saudi King to increase the oil production did not yield any results, his talks about Israel-Palestine peace and working with Iraq's neighbors to bring resolution to the ill-advised Iraq war haven't gone anywhere meaningful. The lip service about bringing freedom to the middle east will not fly anymore after the Iraq debacle, where Iraq, which was relatively secular and free, is ruined, while U.S does protect the super-conservative Saudi Arabia.

This is a testimony to the failed policies of this administration, the loss of credibility and the incredible work that is awaiting Obama when he takes office in next January.

A much needed victory

I am ecstatic. With all the mud-slinging, contraversies after contraversies, Obama emerges as the winner tonight - as i write this, Indiana is too close to call, but N. Carolina has given a strong boost to Obama's delegate lead. The time has come for Clinton to tone down the attacks and start thinking about the interests of the country and the Democratic party. This also speaks volumes about the way Obama has run his campaign - the record turn out of voters and the excitement around this election is nothing other than the creation of Obama. In the last few weeks and months, when the pictures of him wearing a turben circulated, when Jeremia Wright's provocatory sermons surfaced, and other zillion times, my heart felt that the voters would fall for these gimmicks of political charade. We are yet to see what is going to happen in November, But, to my pleasant surprise, today's victory is promising...

Plain Audacity

Now, after the Pennsylvania primaries, Hillary says she is ready to be the 'commander in chief' - it is all good except that there is one problem - somebody forgot to tell her that she is not the leading candidate. She said indirectly a while ago that she would consider Obama as the vice presidential candidate. How about some humility when you know that your opponent has a handsome lead over you? Truly, this election has brought about the worst in the Clinton family.