Jeber’s

Oh mighty ‘bama, where is thy transparency?

Politically and socially I’m moderate to liberal in my general outlook on life. I’m not so liberal as to have joined the Church of Saint Obama, though McCain was a poor alternative, I thought. Too much was being expected of Obama, and he didn’t do much to bring expectations back down to earth. He was aware of his cult status, his deification.

One of the promises made early and often by the president was transparency in government. That was perhaps the most dramatic and audacious guarantee he made us early on. After the last eight years many of us welcomed the idea of a more visible process. If we’re being asked to pay the bills, we ought to be able to know where the money’s going.

And Obama told us we would see his government working. He was going to make Washington a transparent town.

It appears he may have just broken that promise. How else are we to interpret the following but to conclude it’s business as usual, sadly.

How could this happen?

Image via Wikipedia

We were asked to give him a pass on two aspects of his life. To support Obama was to willingly ignore the fact that he was a lawyer and a politician. He may have sounded refreshing, but the substance of Obama is deeply influenced by his love for the law on the federal level. He is a politician and a lawyer, just like Bush was a politician and a lawyer and like Nixon was a politician and a lawyer. Just like Lincoln was a politician and a lawyer.

I can only conclude that the following is an indication of that reality.

There are number of outstanding Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for key documents, by groups like EFF, Public Knowledge, and KEI. In one of our FOIA requests, we asked for 7 specific documents, referenced by the exact title and date of the documents. These documents are the proposals for the text of the agreement.

The texts are available to the Japanese government. They are available to the 27 member states of the European Union. They are available to the governments of Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia. They are available to Morocco, and many other countries. They are available to “cleared” advisers (mostly well connected lobbyists) for the pharmaceutical, software, entertainment and publishing industries. But they are a secret from you, the public.

Today we received this letter from the White House, Office of the United States Trade Representative. Our FOIA request was denied on the grounds that the documents are “information that is properly classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958.”

Here is a link to a PDF of the denial of the FOIA request.  (Source: huffingtonpost.com)

Obama, day .5

It’s been a reality for half a day now, Obama is president. He wasn’t elevated to sainthood. He is not the chosen one of god to lead us into the promised land nor is he the anti-christ. He’s a guy. A smart (being learned is not a crime or sin), articulate, deliberate, former lawyer and educator, guy. We’ve also seen that he’s a professional politician. He knows how the game’s played. He’s no Jimmy Stewart, no Mr. Smith. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We expect a CEO to know how a company runs and what has to be done to accomplish the company’s goals.

At this point I’ll say he was a success if he just manages to keep things from getting any worse over the next 4 years. He cannot treat any problem before us as “business as usual”.

The economy isn’t just bad, we’ve seen how the system can be played and we will be far more hesitant to trust others with our money in the future. The weaknesses and potential for abuse of capitalism have been made clear. We are going to have to rebuild the economy while at the same time redesigning capitalism.

Not much different in foreign relations. We face an enemy both physical and economic. If we carelessly attempt to destroy terrorists at all costs, we risk not only destroying our economy but could destroy the country we’re trying to save. We need to not do the terrorist’s job for them.

Obama’s on a tightrope, and when you’re first learning to walk one, simply not falling off is a big accomplishment at the start.

Holdren to be named Science Adviser

Finally, after eight years of disdain for the scientific community, we could be getting not just a scientific adviser but a scientific adviser who actually understands the issues facing our country.

Harvard physicist John P. Holdren, a leading authority on global warming and a past president of the nation’s largest organization of scientists, will be President-elect Barack Obama’s science adviser.

Holdren, who was an adviser to the Obama campaign, is a professor of environmental policy and director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and also is director of the Woods Hole Research Center in Falmouth, and a past-president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Holdren’s work has focused on climate change, energy technology and policy, and nuclear proliferation.

“I think if he is appointed he will send a signal to the scientific community, which has been disenchanted in the current administration, that science is very important and will be listened to,” said Sheila Jasanoff, a Kennedy School colleague of Holdren’s who has written extensively about the role of scientific advice in a democracy.

In August, Holdren published an opinion piece in the Globe chastising skeptics of global warming. “The extent of unfounded skepticism about the disruption of global climate by human-produced greenhouse gases is not just regrettable, it is dangerous,” he wrote. “It has delayed — and continues to delay — the development of the political consensus that will be needed if society is to embrace remedies commensurate with the challenge.”

That political consensus will be at the heart of the mission of Obama’s science advisor. The president-elect has clearly stated his intentions to take the issue head-on, saying he would vigorously move ahead with efforts to promote alternative energy sources such as wind and solar and reduce carbon emissions that cause global warming.

AAAS Chief Executive Officer Alan I. Leshner called the apparent appointment “enlightened” in a statement. “John Holdren’s expertise spans so many issues of great concern at this point in history — climate change, energy and energy technology, nuclear proliferation,” he said. “He is widely respected in the United States and around the world as a science leader.” (Source-boston.com)

Holdren has an extensive biography.

John P. Holdren is the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy in the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is also Professor of Environmental Science and Public Policy in Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Director of the Woods Hole Research Center.

Trained in engineering and plasma physics at MIT and Stanford, Dr. Holdren co-founded in 1973 and co-led for 23 years the interdisciplinary graduate program in energy and resources at the University of California, Berkeley. His work has focused on causes and consequences of global environmental change, options and choices in energy technology and policy, ways to reduce the dangers from nuclear weapons and materials, and the interaction of content and process in science and technology policy.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations, and Past President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. From 1993 through 2004 he served as Chair of the NAS Committee on International Security and Arms Control, leading it over the course of multi-year studies on management of excess weapon plutonium, the future of US nuclear weapons policy, technical issues related to the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and monitoring and verification of nuclear warheads and materials. He was a member of President Clinton’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) from 1994 to 2001 and, in this capacity, chaired PCAST studies on nuclear materials protection, federal energy R&D strategy for the challenges of the 21st century, and international cooperation on energy-technology innovation. In December 1995 he delivered the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance lecture on behalf of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, which he served as Chair of the Executive Committee from 1987 to 1997. From 2002 until the present he has been Co-Chair of the foundation-funded, bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy. (Source-Contribution to farber.net newsletter)