I have only been in Libya a few hours but am intrigued with this place and the people here. Libyan Leader Muammar al Gaddafi’s pictures are everywhere — but at least they are creative and have some panache compared to what one finds in some other countries with dominant political bosses who have no style….
This is a guest note by Daniel Mandel. Daniel is a Program Associate for the New America Foundation/Next Social Contract Initiative. (Photo Credit: Samuel Sherraden) There has been no shortage of hand-wringing about America’s current unemployment crisis, which is unprecedented in modern times.
Greetings to readers of The Washington Note from Tripoli, Libya. This is a place I never really thought I’d get to — but I’m here. And after just an hour, I’m finding all sorts of things of interest.
Anyone watching the health care debate unfold this past year couldn’t help but note that it had the feel of a badly run, badly managed sports season in which the President’s team nonetheless is going to end up holding the trophy cup.
I thought that President Obama’s Nowruz message to Iranians was — like last year — excellent. I think that this kind of public diplomacy is enormously important in reaching out for the prospects of change — even if the Iran government is recalcitrant.
According to the Washington Post‘s Glen Kessler, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a surprising comment to the BBC this week. She said that the recent US-Israel confrontation was “paying off”.
(Photo Credit: Mariurupe’s Photostream) As I have written on this blog before, I think that the debate surrounding H.R. 252 – a non-binding resolution approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this month that calls the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 “genocide” – is very complicated and offers no simple and easy solutions….
The Dutch premier newspaper, the NRC Handelsblad, has this past week run a candid interview done by DC Bureau Chief Tom-Jan Meeus with John Bellinger III, who is defending Obama administration attorneys from vicious attacks launched by Liz Cheney.
The U.S. economic recovery is in serious need of a course correction.
I always have time for entertainment/communications industry CEO Leo Hindery and Senator Byron Dorgan — and this morning I will be with both of them at a New America Foundation forum on what is needed to chart a credible new course for the US economy.