Obama's Secret Letter To Putin Offered Deal On Missiles

If there is one thing that might turn the Russians on the issue of Iran it is the Missile Defense system. Whether we strike a deal to scrap it, or develop it in tandem with the Russians so that they have complete access to all the technology, we should play this card to get them to work with us on Iran. I would prefer to see us not waste the money to begin with, but it would be conceivable to have a fall back that made Russia a collaborator on development of a system.

This is a brilliant strategic move by Obama. There is some buzz out there that Senator Schumer had suggested it during the Bush administration but that Bush was more interested in generating heat than light. I'm sure that Obama doesn't have any pride of authorship. What matters is getting it done.

We have a very small window for dramatically changing our relationship with Iran. It may be that we enhance the prestige of Russia by giving them the opportunity to play the role of intermediary and peacemaker. There is no time to waste.
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Free Roxana Saberi

Advocates of Dialog with Iran Need to Stand Up and Be Counted

As a strong advocate of dialog with Iran, I condemn the recent arrest of Roxana Saberi, an independent journalist in Iran on charges that are clearly trumped up by the government.

Saberi was arrested after someone sold her wine and then turned her in for buying it. Common opinion in ran is that this is not an offense for which anyone is ever held, so it is clear that the government was looking to muzzle Saberi.

If Iran expects to have a dialog with the US that is based on mutual respect, they should free Ms. Saberi immediately.

President Obama should issue a statement calling for her release.

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Jindal is Toast

If Bobby Jindal was one of those "up and comers" who watched gleefully from the sidelines while Sarah Palin got skewered during the Presidential election, he got his come uppance yesterday in response to his speech Tuesday night after the President.

In what turned out to be Mr. Rogers meets Young Frankenstein, Jindal spewed all the old tire lines as if he were an amalgamation of Republican corpses dug up, spliced together and shocked to life just after Obama had finished his speech.

Where Obama treated us like Adults, able to understand nuance and to handle the bad news, Jindal treated us like children, and low IQ ones at that. In a showing that brought to mind Mr. Rogers, Jindal treated us to a bunch of silly anecdotes that made no sense, criticized actions of his own party, and then expected us to come around to his point, if we could have figured out what it was.

If Jindal has a future in the Republican party it is only because there's so few people left who believe anything they say that without him they can't even field a team. If it turns out that he made up the story about himself and the sheriff, as Keith Ohlberman suggested last night, he's toast.

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The Two Documents Everyone Should Read to Better Understand the Crisis

Irrespective of the fact that this piece was without reference to the two articles cited, the fact remains that If the Bush Administration should have known the extent of the problem based on these two articles, so too should Sen Dodd and Rep Frank. It would be useful to know whether any of them, or their staffs actually read these articles and why there was no response.
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McCain Confronts Obama On Marine One (VIDEO)

Its really unfair to cast the exchange between McCain and Obama on military procurement as a confrontation. To do so really reflects on the reporting more than the story.



This is a friendly exchange between the President and Sen McCain. The fact is that if we are going to get a handle on the procurement issue, we need to take every opportunity to encourage folks to work together. If every exchange is going to be characterized as a confrontation, there will be fewer exchanges and that's not good for anyone.
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Calling Jindal's Bluff

The Obama administration should issue guidelines about refusing any portion of the Stimulus money as a part of their transparency requirements. The guidelines should require that a Governor list the specific tranch that they will be refusing, the amount of money and percent of total stimulus funds that it represents. This way we will know if Gov. Jindal is grandstanding over 1/2 of 1 percent of the funds and accepting the other 99.5 percent.



It should also require that both the Governor and the Legislature sign off on all funds so that the Governor can't just let the legislature do his dirty work. We should NOT deny relief to the citizens of the state however, just because their governor is playing politics.



Finally, in Jindal's case, I'd be curious to know if the feds have set up a system for auditing the money that has been flowing to Louisiana for hurricane relief. If Jindal is playing fast and loose with money that is suppose to be helping hurricane victims, as a means of circumventing stimulus reporting requirements he should go to the Big House not the White House.
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Holder Opens the Door to Nuanced Dialog

No matter what your reaction was to last week's speech by US Attorney General Eric Holder one must admit that it has done one important thing that Holder surely hoped it would do. It has gotten America talking about race. This is important and healthy.

Holder has taken a page out of President Obama's book. That page says that with thoughtful leadership America is capable of tackling the big issues in thoughtful manner.

The left and right jumped on Holder's remarks about America's cowardice in discussing race. It was red meat for the extremes and gave them an opening for putting forward their own agenda's. For the rest of us, it has indeed spurred a useful dialog.

More important than these remarks - and equally important to the dialog about race - were the remarks that Holder made regarding Affirmative Action. Holder called for a healthy and nuanced discussion about affirmative action.

Tackling Affirmative Action may be Obama's "Nixon in China" moment. Moving toward a system that focuses on socio-economic based disadvantages rather than strict racial disadvantages. Whether such a discussion generated change or simply a healthy dialog, it would be another historic moment in an era that seems to have more than its share already.

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