Are Americans the Only Ones that Don't Like Obama Anymore?

The article below is written by a British journalist. If what we see here is true, it is certainly different than the nasty things circulating around the U.S. about our President. Whether you are still supporting Obama or not, its worth reading about why someone else continues to like the guy.

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We should envy America its inspirational president
Barack Obama's brilliant speech on the eve of the healthcare vote brought about real change

guardian.co.uk

Editorial
The Observer, Sunday 28 March 2010

The long political battle over healthcare in the US has often looked peculiar to outside observers. The idea that the state should look after people with medical needs, uncontroversial in Europe, was denounced by some American conservatives as a stepping stone to communism.

President Obama's health plan, signed into law last week, protects millions by reforming the insurance system. New regulations will enforce minimum standards and stop insurers capriciously withdrawing cover.

That might sound more like consumer protection than revolution, but in the context of US politics it is a famous victory. Only a few months ago, obituaries were being drafted for Mr Obama's presidency, with failed health reform the killer blow. The scripts are now in the bin. The healthcare success, a deal with Russia on nuclear disarmament and renewed efforts for Middle East peace are being woven into a comeback narrative.

There will be more setbacks. But Mr Obama's achievement on healthcare has not just rebutted critics, it has slain doubts. His election campaign promised the triumph of imagination and optimism over weary resignation. His slogan "Yes we can!" was meant to answer an implicit question over the ability of politics ever to be a vehicle for meaningful change.

Mr Obama revisited that theme in a brilliant speech on the eve of the healthcare vote. He asked veteran parliamentarians to recall what inspired them to get involved in politics in the first place. He invited them to fan the embers of their idealism back into flames of conviction. He used the power of pure oratory to change the boundaries of what his audience considered possible in politics. It is hard to imagine any of the current generation of British politicians mobilising anyone that way...link to complete article

Looking at the Republicans from a Perch in Europe

London Guardian

Republicans lurch ever rightwards
The party's refusal to move to the centre threatens to undermine any hopes Republicans have of recapturing Congress in 2010

Steven Guess
guardian.co.uk, Friday 26 March 2010 20.00 GMT

The Republican party is showing no signs of moving to the centre of the political spectrum and is pushing forward with a strategy of total opposition to the president and his policies. It's an all-or-nothing gamble that has the party backed into a corner in the face of shifting attitudes towards the president and his domestic agenda. So long as Republicans continue to characterise the president as the antichrist, bent on imposing a total government takeover of the economy, it's impossible for them to reach across the aisle to soften their image. Congressional Republicans find themselves unable to work with an administration their base views as tyrannical and arrogant without being seen as legitimising a neo-Hitler figure by their supporters. It's an unhealthy dynamic that threatens to undermine any hopes Republicans have of recapturing Congress in 2010.

The latest evidence that the party is lurching to the right comes as a former Bush speechwriter, David Frum, resigned from his position at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based conservative thinktank. Frum's resignation comes not long after writing a scathing editorial attacking the GOP strategy of total defiance. Frum argued that conservative entertainment doesn't want Republicans to succeed on a policy level because it would require the sort of compromises with Democrats that doesn't foment angry outrage in the base. Suddenly, a Republican voice was suggesting that it wasn't Democratic trickery that got healthcare passed, but a flawed Republican strategy...link to complete article

Immigration Reform After Health Care?

guardian.co.uk

After healthcare, immigration reform

Immigration will be the Democrats' next big battle, as they try to please Latino voters, business and blue collar workers

Michael Paarlberg
guardian.co.uk, Friday 26 March 2010 18.00 GMT

Protesters at an immigration reform demonstration in San Francisco, California. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty

If you didn't notice the 200,000 protesters who came to Washington last weekend demanding immigration reform, blame Nancy Pelosi. Sunday's massive rally had the bad luck of coinciding with the final House vote on healthcare reform, thus relegating the otherwise momentous gathering to page A3. Yet the timing was appropriate, for it marks the beginning of the next big legislative battle in Congress. Wednesday saw thousands march in San Francisco for the same cause. The coming storm over immigration could be even more contentious than all the "ObamaCare" town hall meetings combined. It will also be a perilous challenge for Democrats trying to balance the conflicting interests of the Latino voters they wish to court, the businesses they promise to bolster, and the blue collar workers they need to turn out to vote in November.

Democratic senator Charles Schumer and Republican Lindsey Graham entered the melee early with a bipartisan proposal for immigration reform. Like the doomed McCain-Kennedy bill that preceded it, Schumer-Graham is a hodgepodge of proposals designed to appeal to as many constituent groups as possible, even if their interests are diametrically opposed. In other words, there is something for everyone to hate. Nativists fearful that a "path to citizenship" amounts to amnesty are promised beefed-up border patrols, which in turn upset immigrant rights advocates wary of the militarisation of enforcement. The bill's most novel idea, a fingerprint-embedded biometric ID card that all workers would be required to carry, is a political non-starter: businesses balk at the system's cost (and impact on their ability to evade taxes by hiring under the table), while civil libertarians sound privacy alarms...link to complete article

France and Its Xenophobia

guardian.co.uk

Migrants feel the chill as the French clamp down

'They don't treat us like humans,' says student from Gaza, as police try to make migrants disappear

Alexandra Topping in Calais
The Guardian, Thursday 25 March 2010

Migrants hoping to make it across the Channel to Britain are forced to sleep rough in Calais after police closed the 'jungle'. Photograph: Sean Smith

Minutes from the buzzing bars and bistros in the trendy Canal St Martin area in Paris, the scene could not have been more different.

Dozens of migrants gathered round open fires, some sat on old office furniture, others crouched. Nearby, in a fenced-off area under a bridge, half a dozen tents were surrounded by discarded food and plastic bags full of dirty clothes, like a miniature shantytown at the edge of the city of light.

The reason why many of them are here lies about 150 miles north of Paris, in Calais. A zero tolerance stance towards migrants has succeeded in reducing numbers in the port but has made life a misery for those who remain and pushed migrants to other places.

Last September bulldozers moved in to clear a makeshift migrant camp known as the "jungle" on the outskirts of Calais and since then police have dismantled any small makeshift settlements, confiscating blankets, sleeping bags and tents, according to charities.

Jean-Pierre Leclercq, president of the Salam charity, which distributes a daily hot meal to the migrants, estimated their number had been reduced to around 300, from approximately 1,200 before the jungle was cleared...link to complete article

Desperate Republicans

guardian.co.uk

Republicans in denial over healthcare

They are desperate to persuade Democrats that healthcare reform will spell political disaster – but the opposite is true

Tim Fernholz guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 17 March 2010 22.32 GMT

Republicans are in denial. They're desperate to convince Democrats that passing comprehensive healthcare reform legislation will be the worst possible move they could make.

"If Speaker Pelosi rams this bill through the House using the reconciliation process, they will lose their majority in Congress in November," Eric Cantor, a top Republican House leader, said on Meet the Press just a few weeks ago.

You'd think Cantor, who could make a move for the speaker's chair if Republicans take back the majority, would be more circumspect about revealing his campaign strategy. Apparently, Republicans are so used to seeing Democrats quail before their threats that he must be ignoring the signs: pollsters say healthcare is looking more popular, as is the president. Now momentum is with the Democrats, who are ignoring Republican complaints about procedural issues to gather their party for a vote to pass the final bill...link to complete article

Changing Racism in Britain - is it possible?

The Guardian

We'll change black Britain
Conservatives will tackle racial inequalities by giving people what they want: a start in business

David Cameron
The Guardian, Wednesday 17 March 2010

In Britain today, too many people are denied the chance to escape poverty and build a better life for themselves and their family. Sadly, this is especially true for people in Britain's black community. Black pupils are permanently excluded from school at more than twice the rate of white pupils. Some 9,500 black children leave primary school every year unable to read, write and add up properly. And of the 3,000 students who started at Oxford in 2008, only five are black Caribbean in origin. This inequality extends to the job market too, with recent research showing almost half of young black people are unemployed, well over twice the rate for young white people.

What's going wrong? To a large extent, Labour's failure to address racial inequality echoes their failure to tackle inequality generally. Since 1997, income inequality, education inequality and health inequality have all widened, hitting the black community disproportionately hard.

A new Conservative government must do better. I want to take down the barriers that prevent so many black people realising their potential. In part, we'll do this through our core reform agenda. By tackling the causes of poverty, like poor schooling, family breakdown, addiction and welfare dependency, we can succeed where Labour has failed...link to complete article

Hillary Clinton piles pressure on Israel over East Jerusalem settlements

guardian.co.uk

US secretary of state says onus is on Israel to restart peace process as Israeli soldiers clash with Palestinians
Ewen MacAskill and Ian Black
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 March 2010 20.47 GMT

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, today demonstrated a new-found steeliness towards Israel by making it clear she was expecting it to back down in the row between the two countries and offer concessions needed for a resumption of Middle East peace talks.

As rock-throwing Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces in Jerusalem in protests dubbed "a day of rage", Clinton sent a double-edged message to Israel.

She softened the tone of remarks coming from the Obama administration over the last few days by talking about the deep bonds between the two countries...link to complete article