The Social Poets: Posts Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 28 Feb 2011

The Social Poets: Posts Roundup at Dennys Blogs - 28 Feb 2011 - Choose from world news analysis combined with the best political cartoon opinion, celebrity watching, science and health news, arts, poetry, funny photos, serious photography, funny videos, great satire, awesome food and spiritual thoughts.

Presidents Day conclusion: Lessons for Barack Obama, 2012.

I hope you have enjoyed our extended Presidents Day walk down memory lane with the eleven one-term presidents who failed to win re-election, from John Adams through George H.W. Bush.  

Click here to see the entire series:

               (a) part I of this series, the first eight one-term presidents, John Adams to William Howard Taft, 

               (b) part II, the ninth, Herbert Hoover, 

               (c) part III, the tenth, Jimmy Carter, and

               (d) part IV, the eleventh and last, George H.W. Bush.

So what was the pattern?  How can Barack Obama avoid their mistakes?   

History never repeats itself.  Each situation, generation, and person is unique.  But history does give clues to who we are and how we act.   Barack Obama has shown himself a masterful politician with a strong organization.  Facing 2012, for my own two cents, I see two key strengths and two key weaknesses:

First, Obama's strengths:

• Weak rival:  A Republcan Party still in disarray (despite its 2010 gains) burdened with (a) an over-abundance with weak national candidates apparently too ego-driven to get out of the way (Palin, Gingrich, Romney, and the rest) and (b) a majority in the House of Representatives too ideological to keep itself out of trouble (government shutdowns, overreaching on  social issues, so on);

• Strong personal good will:  A lingering base of good will in the country among people who still see Obama as reasonable, helpful, centrist, and calm and who consider his 2008 election a historic achievement worth protecting.

Now the weaknesses:

• Some failures:  Some serious leadership mistakes in the first two years, including (a) ceding too much initial control to Capitol Hill Democrats, letting Health Care eclipse economic policy, failing to take control on the budget deficit and (b) too often being dismissive of -- sometimes even hostile to -- his base, his friends, and his core supporters.  Remember Plunket's credo from 1905 Tammany Hall:  "The politicians who make a lastin' success in politics are the men who are always loyal to their friends, even up to the gate of State prison, if necessary...."

• The economy: An economy still broken from 2008 (despite fortunes spent trying to fix it), leaving millions still unemployed and under-employed and the country drowning in red ink, and still fragile enough to rise up and give us all another painful bite at some unexpected point.  (Don't let the stock market fool you on this.  That budget-busting tax-cut deal from last November can still come back to haunt.)    

Best of luck to all the contestants.  Happy Presidents Day.  

The Government are NOT about to force ‘gay marriage’ on the Church of England

Before this media-manufactured spat blows up into a full Church v State crisis – the likes of which Europe has seen quite regularly over two millennia, though increasingly less in England since the Erastian settlement by which the state has been supreme in matters ecclesiastical – His Grace would like to clarify a few things.

A few months before the 2010 General Election, David Cameron jumped in with both feet and presumed to lecture the Archbishop of Canterbury on gay rights. Mr Cameron said: “I don't want to get into a huge row with the Archbishop here, but the Church has to do some of the things that the Conservative Party has been through. Sorting this issue out and recognising that full equality is a bottom-line, full essential.”

And he didn’t get into a huge row with the Archbishop because the absoluteness of ‘full equality’ and the unequivocal ‘bottom line’ were quietly dropped after the election.

And yet, on the face of it, the Prime Minister appears fully to support ‘gay marriage’, for nothing else could be meant by ‘full equality’.

This, coupled with the (untrue) announcement a few weeks ago that the Government are intent on permitting ‘gay marriage’ to be performed in churches (and other religious buildings), has apparently led to some frantic meetings between MPs and bishops to find a typically Anglican via media solution to the issue.

Firstly, let us dispel the whole ‘gay marriage’ canard. The Government has made no proposals to redefine marriage. Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone is preparing a Bill to allow all religious venues – churches, synagogues, mandirs, gurdwaras and mosques to perform some kind of blessing upon homosexual unions if they wish, and to permit sacred scriptures and religious paraphernalia to be used in civil partnership ceremonies. There is no compulsion or coercion of anyone: the state is not redefining marriage, for it cannot.

As His Grace has said, the prohibition on the use of pseudo-spiritual poems in civil ceremonies is absurd: it amounts to state censorship and an enforced division between the private realm of spiritual belief and the public realm of political policy. If consenting adults wish to read the Bible, the Qur’an, the Gita, the Upinishads or a divine piece of Shakespeare as they make their vows, that should be a matter for them. We do not have a tradition of laïcité in this country, and the fundamentalist secularisation of society amounts to the systematic elimination of all religion from public life. Conservatives should see such a violation of conscience and property rights as utterly abhorrent.

If two consenting adult Muslims wish to trundle off to their local mosque to get their gay-friendly imam to pray Allah’s blessing upon their happy civil partnership, what business is that of the state? Having legislated for same-sex civil partnerships, it is bizarre to permit ceremonies to be performed in the Palace of Westminster whilst barring them from Finsbury Park Mosque. The state should have no interest other than in the licence of partnership by which property rights may be determined in law.

Notwithstanding this, Jonathan Wynn-Jones reported that the Archbishop of Canterbury ‘is not prepared for the Coalition to tell the Church how to behave’ and ‘would not be dictated to by the Government’.

Apparently, he had no fewer than four sources for this article, so it must be true.

While we may quibble over the use of the terms ‘Coalition’ and ‘Government’ in this context, His Grace would like to point out to His Grace (if accurately reported, by four sources) that it is indeed for Parliament ‘to tell the Church how to behave’, just as it is for Parliament to license the Church’s Prayer Book and choose its Supreme Governor.

Mr Wynn-Jones informs us that Dr Williams ‘told a private meeting of influential politicians that the Church of England would not bow to public pressure to allow its buildings to be used to conduct same-sex civil partnerships’ and that the Church ‘held a clear position that marriage is between a man and a woman and would not consider changing this stance’.

And so the Archbishop has been accused of ‘alienating homosexuals’ and rendering the Church ‘out of touch with society’. According to Simon Kirby, the Conservative MP for Brighton Kempton: “Public opinion is moving faster than the Church on this issue and it is increasingly in danger of getting left behind.”

Well, thank God for that.

It is not for the Church of Jesus Christ to accommodate every passing fad and societal obsession: sometimes, being ‘left behind’ is very much the best place to be.

But The Daily Mail (which has plagiarised Mr Wynn-Jones’ article verbatim) quotes Dr Williams as saying: “Gay weddings will never take place in church buildings.”

Again, His Grace would like to point out to His Grace (if accurately quoted) that a Church of England building has already been used to conduct a ‘gay marriage’.

So ‘never’ is already negated.

Perhaps Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone has this sort of marriage liturgy in mind when she talks of ‘gay marriage’:

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God to join these men in a holy covenant of love and fidelity. Such a covenant shows us the mystery of the union between God and God's people and between Christ and the Church... As David and Jonathan's souls were knit together, so these men may surely perform and keep the vow and covenant betwixt them made."

But getting this form of Nuptial Mass through Parliament is fraught with so many complexities that they would be easier for a camel to pass through St Stephen's Gate.

It should be evident to politicians of all political persuasions and faiths that marriage is not an exclusively Judaeo-Christian institution; it is a union observed in all cultures, and seems, according to Aristotle, to exist by nature. Marriage in the Bible is essential for the functioning of society, and is the model used to explain the mystery of Christ’s relationship to the church (Eph 5:25-32). The Church of England ‘affirms, according to our Lord’s teaching, that marriage is in its nature a union permanent and lifelong, for better or worse, till death do them part, of one man with one woman’. This has its basis in the Old Testament, where YHWH says: ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him’ (Gen 2:18). It continues: ‘for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh’ (v24). Although these verses do not purport to define marriage, they do describe its origin, and are therefore crucial for understanding the Bible’s teaching on marriage.

There are three principal purposes for marriage arising out of v24: (i) the procreation of children; (ii) companionship, and (iii) sexual union. Marriage is a covenant before God, which Jesus confirms with the phrase ‘God has joined together’ (Mt 19:26); when a person ‘leaves’ and ‘cleaves’. Iain Duncan Smith (at least) has realised that it is the erosion of this foundation which has contributed to ‘Breakdown Britain’.

While the Church in England is subject to Parliament, Parliament is not so omnipotent that it may alter the Word of God. But the Government is not proposing to do so. Permitting religious buildings to be used for the blessing of civil partnerships is not the same as imposing a redefinition of marriage upon the Established Church. So let us stop all this hype, for the Prime Minister is rather busy and can do without such disinformation.

Finally: The last one-termer, George H.W. Bush.

George H.W. Bush taking the oath from Chief Justice William Rehnquist on January 20, 1989.  Onlookers include House Speaker Jim Wright, Senator Ted Stevens, boyish-lookingVice President Dan Quayle,  and Bush's wife Barbara. 

Two years after becoming president, George H.W. Bush assembled and led a multi-national military coalition against Saddam Hussein in the first Persian Gulf War, successfully ejecting Iraq from Kuwait with minimal US casualties and a prompt exit.  In its wake, April 1991, Bush's popularity soared to 89 percent, the 2d highest ever recorded by the Gallop Poll.  (Click here for the historical numbers.)  The highest score, 90 percent, would go to Bush's son George W. after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

But by June 1992, just one year later, Bush's poll number collapsed to 29 percent -- an amazing 60 point drop.  A few months later, he lost his presidency to Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton.  

What happened?  How did all that popularity disappear?  The lessons -- two of them -- are written in big red letters (literally): 

• First, polls lie.  And lying polls can lull a president into the politician's worst enemy - complacency.

• Second, budget deficits matter, sometimes more than wars.

Son of a US Senator (Prescott Bush, D.-Conn.), youngest Navy pilot in World War II, a Yale graduate, self-made Texas oilman, and two-term congressman,  George H.W. Bush in the 1970s was given the chance by Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald Ford to fill four key posts that made him a national figure: Ambassador to the UN, Republican Party chairman, chief US diplomat in China, and Director of the CIA.  In 1980, he ran well enough against Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination that Reagan gave him the VP spot, a role that Bush filled loyally for eight years before winning his own presidency in 1988.   

By 1992, Bush had used his presidency to become an accomplished world leader, presiding over not just the Persian Gulf War but also the collapse of Soviet Russia and other Communist dictatorships and a quick invasion of Panama -- all handled cleanly.      

Unfortunately for Bush, however, this was not quite the right mix for American politics.  American votes elect American presidents -- not the world -- and global feats often play second fiddle to local issues.  Republican conservatives never quite trusted Bush, who had famously referred to Reagan's tax cut plans in 1980 as "voodoo economics."   Then add in a few headaches under Bush's watch like these--

• The collapse of the savings and loan industry, which required a clean-up costing taxpayers an estimated $500 billion, with scandals galore.  

• The nomination to the Supreme Court of Clarence Thomas, the most controversial in modern history, complete with an ugly sex-harrassment scandal played out on national TV.

• Finally, in late 1991, a six-month economic recession pushing unemployment to 7.8 percent and Americans in poverty to 14.2 percent.  Voters still felt pain into the 1992 campaign season. 

Ross Period explaining the budget definit in 1992.

And then there was the deficit.  A point of passion?  Absolutely !!  


During the 1980s, US federal budget deficits had ballooned -- a product of Reagan-era tax cuts combined with failure to control spending that caused national debt to triple during this era, from $900 billion to almost $3 trillion.  (It still sounds quint next to today's mid-2011 debt of $13.5 trillion, but that's another story.)    


Bush wanted to confront this problem, but he had tired his own hands during the 1988 campaign with his famous pledge: "Read my lips!  New new taxes!"  In the end, Bush broke this pledge and approved a $500 billion deficit reduction package in1990 that included tax hikes.  Click here for more about the pledge.

Breaking the pledge was bad enough, but then came something worse: Ross Perot.  


Perot, a cranky self-made Texas billionaire (founder of computer giant EDS), fed up with Washington incompetence, decided to launch his own self-financed independent presidential campaign in 1992 based on his own version of home-spun economic virtues: balanced budget, trade protection for US jobs, and direct town-hall-style democracy.  Partial to CNN's Larry King, he came to interviews and debates armed with charts and graphs to explain just how badly the deficit was hurting everyone in the country.  


Bush seemed lost in the crossfire, worsened by his disdain for what he called "the vision thing."  Perot won 19.7 million votes (about 18 percent)  -- the best popular-vote showing by any third-party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.  This allowed Clinton to win with a 43% plurality. (See full results here.)


And that sky-high, 89 percent poll numbers after the Persian Gulf War?  They simply melted -- like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz.  They had been a mirage, what pollsters call a "rally around the leader" affect in times of crisis.  They had only served to hide Bush's weakness and allow him to get caught flat-footed and out-hustled by hungry Democrats. 

Finally -- Lesson for Obama?


Stay tuned for the series finale -- lessons for Barack Obama in 2012.   Coming tomorrow morning.  I  promise!!

February 27

"I lose sleep because I'm getting older, but not because of China's stepped up public diplomacy efforts."

--USG International Broadcasting guru Kim Andrew Elliott; image from

CULTURAL DIPLOMACY TOOLKIT

Battery Dance Company Toolkit Prototype v1.0: "For nearly three decades Battery Dance Company


has been empowering meaningful cultural relations through teaching and sharing dance. This is the story of what, why and how they do it." Via; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Pentagon, Inc.: How to Sell an Unpopular War - Nancy Snow, Huffington Post: "The American army still engages in a war far, far away [in Afghanistan] but the American citizenry isn't there. We don't engage. We don't support that far-away war, but we continue to pay for it.


It's precisely because of this disconnect between apathetic or weak public support for the Afghanistan war and a costly war raging on at a distance that leads to a full-spectrum influence strategy where public relations, public diplomacy, info ops and psy-ops -- and now Information Engagement cells -- are the soup to nuts menu for getting the purse-holders to board the train." Image from

The Biggest Losers (Middle Eastern edition) - kiwipolitico.com: "[T]he US government ... reacted slowly, clumsily and viscerally to the wave of [Middle East] protests, engaged in a series of quick policy shifts and contradictory pronouncements, and which has been shown to have a limited ability to predict, respond or influence events on the ground in that strategically important region even as it pontificates about its newly discovered commitment to democracy and human rights in it (it should be noted that other great powers such as China and Russia did not engage in public diplomacy about the unrest, which may be more due to their own authoritarian records rather than a respect for national sovereignty and preference for private diplomacy but which in any event does not leave them looking like hypocrites on the matter). ... But the biggest loser by far in this historic moment is the one actor that only gets mentioned by fear-mongerers: al-Qaeda and the international jihadist movement. In spite of repeated calls for the Muslim masses to join them in their struggle, after years of sacrifice of blood and treasure, international jihadists have seen few echoes of their views in the Middle Eastern uprisings."

McCain and Lieberman on Future TV: Public Diplomacy blues - mideastwire.wordpress.com: "If these were indeed the talking points for the two senators, then US public diplomacy in Lebanon is truly at its weakest point in six years.


Incredible responses on LAF aid, Hariri as a hero etc…. the two mainstays of US foriegn policy looked confused and uncomfortable, bereft of their former certainties…." Image from

Russia: Internet Freedom As Cold War 2.0 - Gregory Asmolov, globalvoicesonline.org: "On February 15, 2010 Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State, shared her vision of the Internet’s role in the modern world. New remarks emphasized the definition of the cyberspace as 'the public space of the 21st century' and the U.S. commitment to promote Internet freedom. It seemed that this kind of speech would be supported by bloggers all over the world. Surprisingly, Russian bloggers and, not surprisingly, Russian media were mostly skeptical about Clinton's speech. Article titles vividly illustrate the framing of the address: 'Top-Level Trolling: U.S. Government Plans To Enlighten Russian Citizens Via Twitter' (Vzglyad [RUS]), 'Strategic Twitter Offensive: the U.S. Claims Authority Over Defending Free Internet All Over the World' (Gazeta.ru [RUS]), 'Enemy Voices In 140 Symbols' (Polit.ru [RUS].


Two elements of the speech attracted most attention. The first one is the launch of State Department Twitter account in Russian. And the second one is the decision of the U.S. to invest $25 million in the 'Internet freedom' initiatives. One may assume that the reaction of Russian bloggers could be an unexpected surprise for those who had developed the new U.S. Internet freedom strategy. Hillary Clinton, however, wasn’t the first one to approach Russian citizens online. In 2008, the undersecretary for public diplomacy James Glassman announced creation of Russian language 'Digital Outreach Team', that would engage in RuNet discussions about American politics. The initiative was badly received. There are probably a number of explanations for this type of reaction. One of them is offered [ENG] by Steven Corman and his colleagues. They suggest the U.S. communication failures in other countries are caused by the lack of understanding that 'a meaning cannot simply be transferred, like a letter mailed from point A to point B,' but it depends primarily on 'interpreting one-another’s actions and making attributions about thoughts, motivations, and intentions'." Image from article

Ideas exchanged in Warren: Ukrainians pay visit to city - Virginia Shank, Tribune Chronicle: "Although they were equipped with three interpreters, a group of Ukrainian leaders appeared well aware of the language barrier among them and local officials when they visited the city last week. ... The group, made up of Ukrainian planning and development leaders, is participating in the U.S. Agency for International Development, or US AID, community connections program. They arrived Feb. 16 in the U.S., planning to spend three weeks in Ohio examining urban planning and development practices. The Columbus International Program serves as host organization for


the delegation. ... The program is offered by The Community Connections Program, managed by the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia at US AID and administered by World Learning. It is designed to promote public diplomacy through the exchange of cultural ideas and values among participants, U.S. families and local community host organizations and to establish and strengthen links between U.S. communities and European countries including the Ukraine." Image from

What is Al Jazeera? and What's Al Hurra? - xahlee.blogspot.com: "US Propaganda US of A, countered with Al Hurraw [sic]. This is your tax-dollars at work. Quote: Alhurra is a United States-based satellite TV channel, sponsored by the U.S. government. It began broadcasting on February 14, 2004 in 22 countries across the Middle East. U.S. Government sources generally refer to the channel as Al-Hurra. Like all forms of U.S. public diplomacy, the station is forbidden from broadcasting within the U.S. itself under the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act concerning the broadcast of propaganda."

Israeli Government, Universities Support Student Delegation Sent to Fight Israel Apartheid Week - Connie Hackbarth, Alternative Information Center (AIC): "Ben Gurion University and the the Weitzmann Institute are joining forces with Israel’s Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs to support and finance a delegation going to the UK to counter Israel Apartheid Week at the end of March.


The 25 student strong delegation organized itself via Facebook and according to Alon Kimchi, initiator of the project, 'the time has come to stop crying about the Israeli public relations and to strengthen them in positive ways. Our goal is to act as the first filter against the lies and propaganda against Israel.'”

Chinese public diplomacy is a paper tiger funded by our trade deficit - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Empowering Women in International Relations: The €900 Atlantic Community Op-Ed Writing Competition (NATO countries) - femministas.blogspot.com: "Atlantic-community.org ... [t]o mark the 10th anniversary of this landmark UN Resolution and help realize its aims ... [is] launching the op-ed competition 'Women on Transatlantic Security,' which is sponsored by the NATO Public Diplomacy Division and the United States Mission to NATO."

CULTURAL DIPLOMACY

Jenkins chosen for commission - The Observer: The Independent Newspaper Serving Notre Dame and St. Mary's: "University president Fr. John Jenkins


was recently appointed to a national commission that will examine the future of teaching and research in the humanities and social sciences. The Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences, created by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), is co-chaired by Richard Brodhead, president of Duke University, and John Rowe, chair and chief executive officer of Exelon Corp. The commission includes prominent Americans from the humanities, social sciences, physical and life sciences, business, law, philanthropy, the arts and the media. ... The commission was spurred by a bipartisan request from U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Reps. Tom Petri (R-Wisc.) and David Price (D-N.C.). They presented the commission with the following charge: 'What are the top 10 actions that Congress, state governments, universities, foundations, educators, individual benefactors and others should take now to maintain national excellence in humanities and social scientific scholarship and education, and to achieve long-term national goals for our intellectual and economic well-being; for a stronger, more vibrant civil society; and for the success of cultural diplomacy in the 21st century?'" See also (1) (2). Jenkins image from article

Lynda Benglis & Foundation for Art & Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) Donate Art in Mumbai, India - Press Release, PRLog: "The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE), the leading non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the United States image abroad through American art, announced today that renowned American artist Lynda Benglis will install 14 large-scale, permanent works of art at the new U.S. Consulate in Mumbai, India this month. Benglis has donated these works to FAPE in support of the organization’s mission to use art as a tool for cultural diplomacy. Benglis donated these works to FAPE’s Site-Specific Collections, which uses art to spark cross-cultural dialogue. As part of this project, the U.S. Department of State has asked FAPE


to commission site-specific works by American artists for many U.S. embassies in construction abroad. Once an artist has been selected and has agreed to create a work, FAPE works with the embassy architects, the State Department, and the artist, to ensure that the art is sensitively integrated with its surroundings.


The artists donate all artworks while FAPE provides funds for their fabrication and installation." Top image from; below image from

Cultural diplomacy - ‎Nicole Pope, Today's Zaman: "I recently received a frustrated e-mail from the artistic co-director of the International Culture Lab, a Brooklyn-based theater group that specializes in cross-cultural artistic cooperation. For the past three years, they have been working on a joint American-Turkish theatrical project, bringing together actors and writers from both countries. ... For this project, titled 'S/HE,' two one-act plays written by American playwright Tammy Ryan and her Turkish counterpart Zeynep Kaçar will be merged into one performance that will have a two-week run at the Kitchen Theater in Ithica [sic], the home of Cornell University, in May, a four-week run at the Irondale Theater in Brooklyn in October before moving to İstanbul to greet a Turkish audience at Garajistanbul


in November. ... [W]hile the men and women behind this project found sympathetic ears in the US, they have faced major reluctance on the Turkish side. In fact, they found themselves wading in the murky waters of internal politics, since gender has become a focus of internal divisions. ... We can only hope that Turkish organizations will see that international projects like this one are an occasion to show different aspects of contemporary Turkey and will rise to the challenge." Image from

New Yorkers protest Israel Philharmonic, more protests planned in other cities - Adalah-NY, Palestine: "Seventy New Yorkers protested the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s (IPO) performance at Carnegie Hall Tuesday evening, using chants, songs and street theater to highlight the IPO’s role in whitewashing Israel’s apartheid policies against the Palestinian people. The orchestra’s performances are being met with protests in six of the seven cities on its US tour, including a protest last Sunday evening in West Palm Beach, an upcoming Wednesday protest in Newark, and further protests in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as reported by the Israeli news website YNet. ... By serving as cultural ambassadors for Israel, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is supporting the 'Brand Israel'


initiative, a campaign by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to divert attention from Israel's oppression of Palestinians and 'show Israel’s prettier face, so we [Israel] are not thought of purely in the context of war.' The IPO refrains from criticism of Israel's policies and is described by the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra as 'Israel’s finest cultural emissary.' American Friends of the IPO further notes that 'the goodwill created by [the IPO's] tours...is of enormous value to the State of Israel. As a result, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra maintains its position at the forefront of cultural diplomacy and the international music scene.' One corporate sponsor of the IPO's US tour is Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, who hosted a gala IPO fundraiser. Leviev’s companies have been shunned by UNICEF, CARE, Oxfam, the British and Norwegian governments, and Hollywood stars for building illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and for involvement in human rights abuses in the diamond industry in Southern Africa." See also.

Cultural diplomacy comes into its own - Viet Nam News: "Cultural diplomacy is expected be taught as a subject in several major universities by the end of this year as part of a Government promotion strategy. The deployment of the strategy will be closely combined with overseas diplomatic activities. However, it will also be used internally to promote matters of national interest and importance. The Diplomatic Academy of Viet Nam (IIR),


Ha Noi University of Culture (HUC), the Academy of Journalism and Communication (AJC) and several other universities will take part in the scheme. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the strategy would help speed up cultural diplomacy in the next decade to broaden the international community's understandings of Viet Nam and to consolidate ties with other nations. Image from article, with caption: Vietnamese youngsters at the World Festival of Youth and Students in South Africa last year. Cultural diplomacy can be used to promote Vietnamese culture to enhance political and trade activities."

RELATED ITEMS

The military/media attacks on the Hastings article - Glenn Greewald, Salon: Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings has now written another Rolling Stone article that reflects poorly on a U.S. General in Afghanistan. Military officials want to impugn Hastings, but are afraid to attach their names to their claims and thus be accountable


for them -- exactly the way these officials seek to influence the Afghanistan war debate with covert propaganda, all without any accountability. So they instruct their media servants to disseminate their message anonymously, uncritically, and without a shred of accountability, and "journalists" like O'Donnell and Barnes then snap into line and comply." See also. Image from

Military denies use of intelligence tactics on senators - Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post: When Lt. Col. Michael D. Holmes was assigned to the U.S.-led headquarters in Kabul responsible for training Afghan security forces, he assumed he would spend a year employing his skills as an information operations officer. Perhaps, he thought, he would work on ways to influence Afghans to join their army, or he would develop anti-Taliban propaganda. Officers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Holmes never was asked to use psychological operations, deception or other tactics that would be illegal when applied to fellow Americans. He simply was being asked to conduct research using publicly available material, they said. They also said Holmes never attended any of the meetings with visiting members of Congress. The Army said it has no record of training Holmes in "psychological operations." Holmes was accused of spending too much time on Facebook.

An American in Pakistan - Arthur R. Brisbane, New York Times: The Times’s disclosure on Monday that it withheld information about Raymond Davis’s connection to the Central Intelligence Agency has kicked up a powerful response,


some of it as bitterly critical as these readers’ comments. Mr. Davis was charged with murder after shooting two Pakistani men in Lahore on Jan. 27. The Times jumped on the story, but on Feb. 8, the State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley, contacted the executive editor, Bill Keller, with a request. “He was asking us not to speculate, or to recycle charges in the Pakistani press,” Mr. Keller said. “His concern was that the letters C-I-A in an article in the NYT, even as speculation, would be taken as authoritative and would be a red flag in Pakistan.” Image from

Doyle McManus: Helping the Arabs help themselves: The U.S. must find a way, and funding, to promote democracy - Doyle McManus, latimes.com: Obama and his aides have used the uprisings in the Arab world as a reproach to the authoritarian government of Iran, which has attacked demonstrators in Tehran even as it praised them in Cairo. But the best way to promote democracy in Iran — or Syria or Saudi Arabia — is to help democracy succeed in Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia.

Unfit for Democracy? - Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times: "In Egypt and Bahrain in recent weeks, I’ve been humbled by the lionhearted men and women I’ve seen defying tear gas or bullets for freedom that we take for granted. How can we say that these people are unready for a democracy that they are prepared to die for?"

How the Arabs Turned Shame Into Liberty - Fouad Ajami, New York Times: For decades, Arabs walked and cowered in fear. Now they seem eager to take freedom’s ride. Wisely, they are paying no heed to those who wish to speak to them of liberty’s risks.

After Iraq's Day of Rage, a Crackdown on Intellectuals - Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post: The Iraq protests were different from many of the revolts sweeping the Middle East and North Africa in that demonstrators were calling for reform, not for getting rid of the government. Their demands ranged from more electricity and jobs to ending corruption, reflecting a dissatisfaction with government that cuts across sectarian and class lines.


Yet the protests were similar to others in that they were organized, at least in part, by middle-class, secular intellectuals, many of whom started Facebook groups, wrote and gave interviews supporting the planned demonstrations. Image from

State Dept official "weighing his words carefully ... both praised and criticized Al Jazeera" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Al Jazeera English in the USA: more arguments for and against - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

China launches propaganda campaign‎ - Kathrin Hille, Patti Waldmeir, Financial Times: China muffled calls for a pro-democracy movement on Sunday with a show of force from its security apparatus and an all-out propaganda offensive. Huge numbers of uniformed and plainclothes police, combined with street-cleaning vehicles, made sure no crowds formed on Wangfujing, one of the busiest shopping streets in Beijing, where an anonymous online appeal has been calling on people to gather for weekly ‘strolls’ for democracy.

China names top media watchdog: Cai Fuchao will take over at SARFT, report directly to cabinet - variety.com: China has named Cai Fuchao, deputy mayor and propaganda czar of Beijing, as head of the country's powerful media watchdog, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Cai, 60,


replaces Wang Taihua, who oversaw rapid growth of the Chinese film and TV business in the past six years, and the appointment comes shortly before next month's annual parliament, the National People's Congress. SARFT answers directly to China's cabinet, the State Council, and effectively decides what gets on TV and into the cinemas. It is the main censor and it decides which films make it under China's quota system that allows 20 foreign movies to screen every year on a revenue-share basis. He will play a key role in many ongoing projects such as the streamlining of the broadcast sytem, greater network convergence and increasing the watchdog's remit to include online and mobile content. Fuchao image from

North Korea threatens 'firing attacks' on South over leaflets about Mideast turmoil - Chico Harlan, Washington Post: North Korea on Sunday threatened to fire cross-border shots if South Korea continues a leaflet-launching propaganda campaign, which aims in part to inform the hermetic North of anti-government revolts in the Middle East.

The Lands Autocracy Won’t Quit - Clifford J. Levy, New York Times: Let the Middle East and North Africa be buffeted by populist discontent over repressive governments. Here in Lenin’s former territory, across the expanse of the old Soviet Union, rulers with iron fists still have the upper hand.

The Next Impasse [Review of The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan by Bing West] - Dexter Filkins, New York Times: The new religion is counterinsurgency, or in the military’s jargon, COIN. Why hasn’t the new faith in Afghanistan delivered the success it promises? In his remarkable book, “The Wrong War,” Bing West goes a long way to answering that question. “The Wrong War” amounts to a crushing and seemingly irrefutable critique of the American plan in Afghanistan.


Nine years of training and investment have created an Afghan Army fraught with the same corruption and lack of cohesion as the rest of the country. As it is, the Americans are now pouring more resources into the Afghan security forces than ever before. At best, the Afghans are years away from taking over the bulk of the fighting. And even that is a very fragile hope. Until then, what? As “The Wrong War” shows so well, the Americans will spend more money and more lives trying to transform Afghanistan, and their soldiers will sacrifice themselves trying to succeed. But nothing short of a miracle will give them much in return. Image from article, with caption: A security checkpoint at the edge of Marja, Afghanistan, May 2010.

How social media helps the revolution[s] - Martijn Stegink: There is lots of debate about the role of social media in social change, while


there is a disagreement about what the role exactly is, there is no denying there is one. Image from

Mosh Pit Diplomacy [Review of How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance By Parag Khanna] - Stéphanie Giry, New York Times: “How to Run the World” seems to be about the beginning of the end of the state, about the inescapable erosion of state power relative to that of supranational, subnational and private actors. Khanna’s answers to real problems tend to be vague or wishful.

Book review: 'Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage': Douglas Waller has written a splendid biography of the larger-than-life man who ran the legendary forerunner of the CIA - Tim Rutten, latimes.com: When war arrived, Donovan became a fervent supporter of aid to London and an opponent of U.S. isolationism. Encouraged by Churchill and the British espionage operative William Stephenson, he also became convinced that America required a professional intelligence agency like Britain's MI6, staffed with "men calculatingly reckless with disciplined daring."


Donovan proposed such a group to Roosevelt, and, in 1941, the president named the New York lawyer "coordinator of information." Thus was the legendary Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, born: Its agents — both men and women — generally lived up to Donovan's description throughout the war. Much of Waller's narrative is given over to those years, and rightly so, since they were replete with heroism of all sorts. There were stunningly daring, meticulously prepared operations as well as many — like the plan to drop bats with bombs strapped to their bodies over Germany — that simply were harebrained. Others were problematic, like a generalized collapse of OSS operations in Italy that were saved and put on a productive footing by Donovan, who repeatedly and recklessly exposed himself to enemy fire. His administrative overreaching and lack of even normally protective political instincts earned Donovan the distrust of many, as well as the undying enmity of J. Edgar Hoover. When the former spy chief died, in 1959, from complications of senile dementia, the FBI director spread a rumor that the real cause of death was syphilis.

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"Men and women in the prime of their professional lives, who may have been responsible for the lives of scores or hundreds of troops, or millions of dollars in assistance, or engaging or reconciling warring tribes, may find themselves in a cube all day


re-formatting PowerPoint slides."

--Defense Secretary Robert Gates; image from

Ireland’s new puppet government emerges

They’re still counting (ah, the joys of STV; it won’t be much better under AV). But it is now looking certain that Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny will be the next Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, bringing to a close Fianna Fáil’s 70-year dominance over the nation’s politics and ending their 14-year unbroken period of governance.

All the favourite politico clichés are being rolled out: it’s a ‘landslide’; a ‘sea change’ in Irish politics; a ‘revolution’; a ‘fracturing’ of the Irish body politic, etc., etc. And it is all of those. The people of Ireland have just delivered at the ballot box what the peoples of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have to die to achieve: regime change.

But His Grace feels really quite sorry for Mr Kenny, for he cannot quite deliver the regime change the people desire. Fine Gael have been swept to power on the back of a promise to renegotiate the terms of Ireland’s €80bn bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Did His Grace say ‘swept to power’?

He apologises.

Gael or Fáil – it doesn’t matter which centre-right(ish) party is in office, their sovereignty has been removed: they have no power. What they have is an electoral mandate from the people to renegotiate, which is nice. But a new marriage of convenience doesn’t negate a bankruptcy order on the divorcée; it doesn’t absolve them of their contractual responsibilities: only death can liberate them from the burden. The Irish people really ought to have learned by now that they can scream and scream and scream – and even reject an EU treaty – but it makes not one iota of difference in Brussels: the EU juggernaut rolls on inexorably.

And the same is true of the IMF and the ECB: unaccountability means the same austerity measures will still be imposed, exactly as they are across the eurozone.

The puppets may have changed but the same puppet master is pulling the strings. This election will not diminish Ireland’s debt by one euro; it will not reduce the interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point; it will not diminish the burden of the deficit by so much as an old Irish pund: it will hang around their necks for decades, and rest upon the shoulders of their children and their children’s children.

Why can they not see that he who pays the piper calls the tune? You’d think, in Ireland of all places, that they’d understand the significance of pipe playing.

These tedious days of vote counting will now be followed by further days of backroom deals and coalition forming: Ireland is familiar with the process. It looks as though Fine Gael will govern with Labour, whose vote has also increased significantly. That will leave Fianna Fáil in opposition along with Sinn Féin.

Enda Kenny’s manifesto for government will then be some fusion of Labour/Fine Gael policies and programmes, no permutation of which will be put to the people. And those who purport to lead the country will be as much on the EU/IMF payroll as their predecessors were on the on the payroll of the banks and financial services sector. And so the money merry-go-round of corruption continues.

As in all democracies, the Irish people have elected the government they deserve. While His Grace is grateful that they have re-adopted Gaddafi Adams, he genuinely feels quite sorry for them. Politicians seem to win elections by promising heaven on earth, and when, a decade later, the electorate realises that they are still in purgatory, another swathe of disaffected voters views the democratic process with cynicism and disdain, declaring a plague on all their houses. This leads to voter apathy and alienation, a deterioration in democratic participation and a declining turnout in elections, especially among the young.

If our democratic leaders do not wake up soon to the inevitable consequences of this, then Tripoli and Cairo will come to Dublin, Lisbon and London, just as it has already come to Athens. You can’t buck the people.

Libya: Why This Revolt Was Ripe To Happen Now

Image via Wikipedia

From Denny: An update on the evolving situation in Libya. There are still about 300 Americans trapped in the chaos and another 100,000 internationals trying to evacuate. Gadhafi is threatening to blow up the country if defeated. No one is sure if that means by atomic bombs or conventional - or if he will actually do it.

Gadhafi has lost most support in the international community and among his diplomats, politicians and military. All that remains are the usual suspects: the loyalist Republican Guard. Sooner or later they too will see overwhelming odds of armed protesters and throw in with them much like the police did in Egypt. It is a matter of time before the armed protesters take Tripoli as they have many other cities across the country.




Some Basic Facts To Know About Libya

What is the basic history about this country?

* 1951 is where is all starts. Libya had been under 30 years of Italian colonial rule, followed by 8 years of United Nations trusteeship. Libya finally wins its independence. The previous Italian colonial rule explains the close ties with Italy today.

* 1969 is where we see Moammar Gadhafi enter the political scene. Then he was a 27-year-old Army captain that led a mostly peaceful coup to overthrow the ruling monarchy. He positioned himself to become the now undisputed ruler, like a king. He established a socialist system while nationalizing businesses. He also went about financially supporting international terrorist groups which has earned him the ire of world leaders for decades.

* April 1986: During the Reagan years America bombed the hell out of the Gadhafi compound in Tripoli. Why? It was retaliation for the bomb blast that killed U.S. troops in a bombed Berlin, Germany discotheque. It was reported American jet air strikes killed Gadhafi's adopted baby daughter, though most of what is reputed to be fact in Libya usually cannot be substantiated.

* 1988: This is the famous Lockerbie incident that earned Gadhafi zero sympathy. Libyan agents planted a bomb that blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. They killed 270 people, mostly Americans. Since this depraved incident that took the lives of innocents, Libya was isolated by the world community through United Nations sanctions, harming its economy.

* 2003: Crippled by international sanctions and international outrage and lawsuits, Libya finally admits responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing. Gadhafi also claimed he would end his efforts at developing weapons of mass destruction. He actually was making progress at normalizing relations with the international community, most notably the West.

* January 2009:  Libya antes up and pays compensation to the American families of the Lockerbie victims. America then decides to exchange ambassadors with Libya, the first time in 35 years of frosty relations.

* 2009: Gadhai marks his 40 year anniversary of absolute rule with some seriously lavish celebrations at a time when the country's economy and the average person is hurting.  Gadhafi is elected chairman of the African Union for a one-year term.

* By 2010:  Various countries, including America, bring in business personnel to trade and scoop up Libyan oil.  This includes hundreds of thousands of international employees.

* Feb. 15, 2011: Sparked by the Egypt Revolution and Tunisia's revolt, a pro-democracy anti-government protest erupts in Libya. This peaceful revolt quickly turns bloody with pro-Gadhafi forces killing protesters.  In turn, the protesters have armed themselves and begun their own military campaigns to take the cities one at a time.  Currently, they are closing in on Tripoli, the capitol city and it is expected to fall to the protesters.

Gadhafi has been steadily losing support among the diplomats, the politicians, the military.  Jet fighters ordered to fire upon the people have rejected the orders, crashed their planes, and requested asylum in other countries. Diplomats have defected, requested asylum as well.  All Gadhafi has left is his loyalist Republican Guard but it is tenuous how long he can hold out.

Gadhafi has threatened to blow up the whole country if is he is not able to stay in power.  It now is a waiting game to see if he makes good on his threats.  At this point, the protesters have nothing to lose as they press ahead to gain control of their country away from this madman.

What is the geography of this troublesome country called Libya?

*  It's about the size of our state of Alaska, a bit larger at 1.7 million square kilometers or 660,000 square miles.

*  Most of this country is a barren place of about 90 percent desert or semi-desert.

*  The nearest neighboring countries are Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Niger, Chad and the Sudan.

What population size lives in Libya?

* About one-third of the country is under the age of 14 years old or actually younger.  There are 6.5 million total residents.

* The majority of that 6.5 million live in cities, to the tune of nearly 80 percent of them.

* About 97 percent of the population are Muslims.

What is the state of the Libyan economy?

* According to the World Bank figures, the Gross Domestic Product of Libya in 2009 was $62 billion.

* You guessed it.  The vast majority of their revenues from exports come from oil.  This is definitely not a wise choice to depend upon only one product.

* Libya has the 9th largest oil reserves in the world.

What is the Libyan reputation on Human Rights?

* 2010: Libya earns the worst score possible for measuring freedom, according to the Freedom House.

* 2005: Libyan human rights score rated as poor by the U.S. State Department, though there were said to be some meager improvements. Still the stain of torturing detainees, arbitrary arrests, civil liberties' restrictions remain standard operating procedure in this Gadhafi regime.

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