Chimerica? A Team of Rivals?

Ever since President Richard Nixon visited China in 1972. The door has slowly opened and like it or not the world has become a safer place. Our arch enemy since the Korean War became a major trading partner and eventually underwriting our debt. Our economies are intertwined so much that to break those bonds would almost ensure a mutually assured destruction of the world's economic health.

Thomas Barnett author of Great Powers: America and the World After Bush has a really forward looking post up today East and West, intertwined and imperative in which he describes his reaction to an article in Asia Times Online.

This is a very good but complex description (in the aggregate) of the nature of East-West financial/trade ties over the past years, with a prescription that makes sense regarding the future of U.S.-Chinese strategic cooperation. Without using the same words, its vision matches up nicely with mine in Great Powers--the notion of a "team of rivals" in diplomacy and a coordinated "race to the bottom of the pyramid" as a way to reorder global trade patterns (getting away from just the tremendous treadmill of China selling to us and buying our debt with its surplus) so as to close the Gap by having New Core powers like China integrate Gap economies into their buyer and producer chains and attracting Western competition in the same.

....In effect, what this piece says is that the globalization model of the past quarter century that saw America provide virtually all the global Leviathan services and the lion's share of consumer demand (an implicit Marshall Plan) is broken (I prefer the term, "consummated" or "completed"). But no matter the term you use, it has come to its useful end, this model. We can't take on more debt nor more global security burden--we are tapped. These are my essential arguments in Great Powers.

Barnett confronts the fear that many are having about the direction of the economy and America. He answers that fear this way.

Now I feel completely empowered across the board, and I no longer fear the subprime System Perturbation's play in my model of the future (fear, to me, is always a matter of not knowing how to integrate). Deep down, when you think about alternative global futures, you always know that the big facilitators are going to be scary crises. That's just the way it is. People will not change on the basis of frantic warnings during calm times, but they will change on the basis of calm warnings during frantic times.

Bottom line: if you want to be a grand strategist, you have to welcome the frantic times. No tumult, no play. And no play, no real structural change.

Part of what Tom is writing about is a vision expressed in this article by Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek. Wanted: A New Grand Strategy,

Grand strategy sounds like an abstract concept—something academics discuss—and one that bears little relationship to urgent, jarring events on the ground. But in the absence of strategy, any administration will be driven by the news, reacting rather than leading. For a superpower that has global interests and is forced to respond to virtually every problem, it's all too easy for the urgent to drive out the important.

Strategy begins by looking at the world and identifying America's interests, the threats to them and the resources available to be deployed. By relating all these, one can develop a set of foreign policies that will advance America's interests and ideals. When the unexpected happens, one can respond in ways that are aligned with these broader objectives. One uses the urgent to pursue the important. Or, to put it another way: never let a crisis go to waste.

Zakaria ends on this note by encouraging President-elect Obama to seize the moment.

This is a rare moment in history. A more responsive America, better attuned to the rest of the world, could help create a new set of ideas and institutions—an architecture of peace for the 21st century that would bring stability, prosperity and dignity to the lives of billions of people. Ten years from now, the world will have moved on; the rising powers will have become unwilling to accept an agenda conceived in Washington or London or Brussels. But at this time and for this man, there is a unique opportunity to use American power to reshape the world. This is his moment. He should seize it.

In a companion piece in Newsweek, Richard N. Haass China: Don’t Isolate, Integrate calls on America to invite China into the tent, as a way of confronting the problems that Tom Barnett has been writing about for the past decade.

The single most important challenge for the new administration—one with the potential to shape the 21st century—is China. As goes China, so go 1.3 billion men, women and children—one out of every five people on the planet.

China's economy is now roughly half the size of America's; in three decades, the two are likely to be about equal. What the Chinese eat, how much (or whether) they drive, where and how they choose to live, work and play: all will have an enormous impact on the availability and price of energy, the temperature of the planet and the prosperity of mankind.

Beijing's foreign policy is no less important. A cooperative China could help stem the spread of nuclear materials and weapons, maintain an open global trading and financial system, secure energy supplies, frustrate terrorists, prevent pandemics and slow climate change. A hostile or simply noncooperative China, on the other hand, would make it that much more difficult for the United States and its allies to tame the most dangerous facets of globalization. But the emergence of a cooperative China is anything but inevitable. That is why Washington needs a new approach to Beijing. Think of it as "integration."

Integration should be for this era what containment was for the previous one. Our goal should be to make China a pillar of a globalized world, too deeply invested to disrupt its smooth functioning. The aim is ambitious, even optimistic, but not unrealistic.

Much of what Haass and others have written, is countered by those who say we can not trust China now any more than the generation of our grandparents could trust Germany in the 1930's. During that time we never were able to influence Germany to change her ways before the world went over the cliff. Today, our best hope is to take the experiences we have learned from our past and practice pragmatic diplomacy, using trust, but verification as Reagan used to say, to ensure that our security and prosperity is protected through the strength of our people to innovate and adopt to a changing world.

Haass's final words are as cautious, as they are optimistic.

Even if all this happens, China and the United States aren't likely to become allies. But they could build a relationship based on selective cooperation, complemented by an understanding to limit the fallout from their disagreements. Both countries have a stake in such an arrangement. Trying to bring it about—integrating China into the highest councils of the 21st century—should be a top priority for the new president and his team.

Reads of the Week.

Barak Obama's Administration picks

Burned NATO trucks Pakistan

First Vietnamese-American Congressmen Joseph Cao, Louisiana

Leading off this week is this post from Zenpundit, The Elite as a Tribe about President-elect Obama's appointment.

A taste of Mark's comments.

I’m not unhappy with Obama’s appointments, finding them so far to be well qualified and I’ll offer high praise for Obama’s selection of General Jones and Secretary Gates. The Small Wars/COIN bloggers are jumping for joy and the national security bloggers, along with the conservative political bloggers, should be pleased; the next Defense Secretary or Secretary of State might easily have been Anthony Lake. It’s a more conservative national security group than any time during the Clinton administration. Count your blessings folks.

What strikes me as amusing though is the entirely visceral, euphorically emotive and almost tribal “he’s one of us” support from the elite for the President-elect. Reactions that run against the supposedly cerebral and “reality based” pretensions of empiricism and skepticism for which they make a claim but seldom practice because most of them are highly-trained, vertical thinking, experts.

No sooner had Mark commented on the selection of so many academic elites to roles in government, than he posted this, The Chicago Way is Incompatible with Gravitas.

I think most people familiar with Illinois politics expected that eventually some kind of Chicago landmine was going to go off under President-elect Barack Obama - it’s just that few people expected it might happen before the 20th of January.

www.stratfor.com files another report on the Next Steps in the Indo-Pakistani Crisis.

It begins:

In an interview published this Sunday in The New York Times, we laid out a potential scenario for the current Indo-Pakistani crisis. We began with an Indian strike on Pakistan, precipitating a withdrawal of Pakistani troops from the Afghan border, resulting in intensified Taliban activity along the border and a deterioration in the U.S. position in Afghanistan, all culminating in an emboldened Iran.

The scenario is not unlikely, assuming India chooses to strike.Our argument that India is likely to strike focused, among other points, on the weakness of the current Indian government and how it is likely to fall under pressure from the opposition and the public if it does not act decisively. An unnamed Turkish diplomat involved in trying to mediate the dispute has argued that saving a government is not a good reason to go to war. That is a good argument, except that in this case, not saving the government is unlikely to prevent a war, either.

Related to a post last month, What the ----- People! part of which, was about the Taliban ambushing a supply convoy in the Kyber Pass and stealing humvees destined for NATO forces in Afghanistan. I thought that embarrassment would spur commanders to improve their supply chain security. But I was wrong.

Now, two reports of attacks on the supply chain reflect out far out of sync things have gotten in Pakistan.

Trucks Torched at Pakistan Terminal Used for NATO - Associated Press

And the ink was not even dry on the story above when this report "hits the fan."

Second Attack on NATO Trucks in Peshawar - The Times

Suspected Islamist militants in northern Pakistan set fire to 100 vehicles and other supplies for US and Nato forces in Afghanistan in the early hours of yesterday morning in the second such raid in as many days.

Witnesses and local officials said that several militants attacked a freight terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar, setting fire to several dozen containers and military vehicles.

“The militants came just past midnight, firing in the air, sprinkled petrol on containers and then set them on fire,” said Mohammad Zaman, a guard at the terminal on the Peshawar ring road. “They told us they would not harm us but they asked us not to work for the Americans,” he said.

Some local officials said that about 50 containers were destroyed, while others said the attackers set nearly 100 vehicles alight including Jeeps and 20 supply trucks.

Finally, this story from Louisiana. A state that a few decades ago has a reputation for political corruption and segregationist policies. This story mirrors the recent election of Barak Obama and Governor Bobby Jindal. The United States is a nation of immigrants who become Americans with each wave adding to our strength and innovation.

GOP Finds an Unlikely New Hero in Louisiana (By Paul Kane)

Less than 24 hours after his upset defeat of a longtime Democratic congressman from New Orleans, Anh "Joseph" Cao found the weight of the entire Republican Party resting on his diminutive shoulders.

Cao, 41, ran as a reform-minded conservative against Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), a nine-term incumbent who won reelection in 2006 despite widespread publicity about the FBI finding $90,000 in his freezer during a 2005 raid on his home. Cao, the first Vietnamese American elected to Congress, plans to take a victory lap through Washington this week.

Congratulations President-Elect Obama

PRESIDENT-ELECT BARAK OBAMA

The election is over. The American people have voted and Barak Obama will become the 44th President of the United States next January 20. I extend my congratulations to President-Elect Obama. He will be our president and like all other's who have held that office during my lifetime, will command my respect and loyalty as he upholds the responsibility of that high office.

This is a remarkable event, because it moves America into a post-racial future. I urge all Americans to pause and pray for his wisdom and guidance. As our country moves forward the challenges are great, but no insurmountable. The millions of new voters should take time to reflect on not only the power of the ballot box, but on the responsibility of being a good citizen. Understand that the freedom exercised today were possible because of millions who came before you paid with it with their lives and service. More that soldiers, it was everyone who voted and worked and educated themselves and fought for the rights of others down through our history who made today possible.

We Americans are the product of those people. To those who recently came to our shores. Take the right you exercised today and use it as a lesson to work harder to better yourself and educate yourself. Our country is a fertile ground where innovation breeds like weeds. I challenge those who voted with the hope of change to get up off your collective cushions and get involved in bettering your own lives.

And remember, don't think that America should become like Europe or Central America, or Asia. The millions who have come here and continue to come here, do so because we are America, The New World, where everyone has new beginning and now, might even see their child become the President.

And Remember this above all else, the next election is in 2010. If you don't like the direction of this course correction, then VOTE to change it.

America's Future

American Faces

New Citizens

Van Tran, California Assemblyman

Route of Human Expansion

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This Sunday was a time for catch up for me. I just finished voting via absentee ballot and in an unrelated task, sent in my DNA sample to the Genographic project sponsored by the National Geographic Society.

.Then I read Tom Barnett's column and I though how it related to the two tasks above.

Thomas Barnett leads off this Sunday with a optimist column that should give every American a greater understanding of our role in the world.

He begins:

As our financial crisis unfolds, Americans suffer a serious bout of existential ennui. Unsure of whom we are or our global role anymore, our self-doubt scares the world in near-equal measure. Predictably, both skeptics at home and challengers abroad tell us that we must get used to this post-American world. My advice is to resist these sirens' song.
From the perspective of grand strategy, such pessimism is unwarranted: just as our international liberal trade order -- known now as globalization -- encompasses the near-totality of the planet, vastly outreaching all previous attempts to establish a global order and doing so in a manner that both enriches and empowers individuals, too many Americans feel alienated from this world so clearly of our creation.

Dr. Frankenstein should recognize in this alleged monster the sum of his ambitions.

....As such, the proximate causes of our angst are readily identified: we've taken in a record number of immigrants in recent years, giving us a relatively high percentage of foreign-born residents, and we're suffering a magnificent economic correction. In the past when such conditions have met, we've isolated ourselves from a "chaotic" world, painfully attempting to transform our decidedly blended identity into one uniformly organic -- as in, "real" Americans.

Read the whole column:

Post-Caucasian world hardly post-American world

In my own local area, the changes that Tom Barnett describes has taken major purchase. For example, Vietnamese Americans, in the span of a generation are entering politics and assimilating at a rate almost unseen in our history. Orange County, California, bastion of conservative politics and the butt of jokes about it's perceived WASPist demographics, is now seeing the inclusion of Asian Americans in positions ranging from school boards, councilpersons, county supervisors, to the state legislature. Vietnamese American politicians are coming of age in Westminster ... This is just a micro look at what is happening and will happen across our land.

Like Tom's column points out with this excerpt:

...America has always been a land to which strangers came for re-invention, for we choose our family instead of merely accepting what tradition mandates. We have abandoned homelands and clans, married outside of race and class, and swapped religions with a unique urgency. The chance to be born again is the quintessential American right -- the pursuit of happiness individually defined.

I have written several posts defining my own experiences with the world, beginning with my service in Vietnam over 40 years ago, and re-examined during my passage to my current avocation. That conclusion is the importance of recognizing our strength as a country is in our ability to assimilate almost everyone into a nation of volunteers. A Resilient Nation.

If anyone needs further convincing of the fact that we are all cousins, you are invited to take the challenge and sign up for the National Geographic Genographic project. The great advantage is as American Cousins we have chosen on our own to be a family. And for those who are dissatisfied with the family and want to leave, unlike some places the express freedom of choice in America, allows the option to move. Although, it is better to stay and try and effect change in an environment that allows for change.

It is simple, and worth the fee to trace your genetic family tree back to it's source in Africa over 60,000 years ago. For those who are hesitant to accept this for creationism reasons, consider this. According to the data collected thus far, all people living today can be traced back to a single surviving genetic marker mother who lived in Africa about 100,000 years ago. Those whose roots can be traced back to other parts of the globe can trace their tree back to a single women and man living in Africa about 60,000 years ago. Don't take my word for it. I urge you to visit the link above and if you feel the need to know, plunk down the fee and swab your cheeks, send in the sample and await the results. It will be a fascinating journey!

Changing of the Guard

One of the first blogs I read on Sunday morning, is Thomas Barnett's column. This weeks topic, The end of the boomer presidency looks to the future and the next generation of leaders we will entrust to lead our nation.

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Tom begins:

Whatever this national election's outcome, one thing seems clear: it marks the end of the boomers' presidential reign. As if applying a devastating coda to this era's highly leveraged lifestyle, our current financial crisis indicates that we have reached the end of that political generation's dysfunctional hyper-partisanship and lack of fiscal discipline.
Nothing displays our collective desire to move beyond the boomers more than the fact that the two most exciting national candidates fielded in this election are -- in effect --post-boomers: Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. Even the Republicans' turn toward John McCain represents an implicit rebuke of the boomers' political generation in that he promises a pre-boomer return to adult supervision in Washington.

The dullard of the four? That would be the quintessential boomer Joe Biden.

This column led me to reflect on a book written almost 20 years ago by William Strauss and Neil Howe, Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069. In their book they divide American history into seasonal cycles of history. These seasons are further divided into generations by birth year and are classified as one of four types of generations or historical periods. Since the 15th century, the only exception to the "four-season" cycle was the our Civil War, when the generation type jumped from Reactive to Adaptive with no Civic generation.

Strauss and Howe had warned in their book about electing Idealist "Boomers" to lead the nation before their elder years. I decided to take a little trip back in history and in an unscientific glance test their theory.

Using a source from American Generations - Cycles in U.S. History , found at http://www.timepage.org/ I will examine the leadership of generations from the Revolution to today.

Awakening Generation - Prophet, Idealist Type (1701-1723)

The only noted near leaders of this generation were Benjamin Franklin, and Samuel Adams, advisers to those who actually led.

The Age of Enlightenment - 1st Turning, High (1693-1733)

Liberty Generation - Nomad, Reactive Type (1724-1741)George Washington, John Adams.

The French and Indian War Era - 3rd Turning, Unraveling (1744-1773)

Republican Generation - Hero, Civic Type (1742-1766) Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe,

The American Revolution Era - 4th Turning, Crisis (1774-1787)

Compromise Generation - Artist, Adaptive Type (1767-1791)Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, William Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, James Buchanan, Dolley Madison.

Era of Good Feeling - 1st Turning, High (1788-1821)

Transcendental Generation - Prophet, Idealist Type (1792-1821) Abraham Lincoln, James Polk, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson.

Transcendental Awakening Era - 2nd Turning, Awakening (1822-1837)

Gilded Generation - Nomad, Reactive Type (1822-1842) Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison,

Era of Slavery Expansion - 3rd Turning, Unraveling (1838-1859)

missing generation - Hero, Civic Type

Civil War Era - 4th Turning, Crisis (1860-1865)
Progressive Generation - Artist, Adaptive Type (1843-1859)Theodore Roosevelt, William McKinley, William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.

The Gilded Age - 1st Turning, High (1866-1885)

Missionary Generation - Prophet, Idealist Type (1860-1882)Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Warren Harding , Calvin Coolidge , Herbert Hoover.

Missionary Awakening Era - 2nd Turning, Awakening (1886-1909)

Lost Generation - Nomad, Reactive Type (1883-1900)Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman,

World War I / Prohibition Era - 3rd Turning, Unraveling (1910-1929)

G.I. Generation - Hero, Civic Type (1901-1924)John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush Sr.

Depression / World War II Era - 4th Turning, Crisis (1930-1944)

Silent Generation - Artist, Adaptive Type (1925-1942) As yet only also-rans, populate this group Walter Mondale, Robert F. Kennedy, Edward M. Kennedy and the question mark? John McCain.

Era of Superpower America - 1st Turning, High (1945-1965)

Boom Generation - Prophet, Idealist Type (1943-1960),William Clinton, George W. Bush.

Boom Awakening Era - 2nd Turning, Awakening (1966-1980)

Thirteenth Generation (Generation X) - Nomad, Reactive Type (1961-1981) Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. One of these two, will be either President or the Vice President.

As we examine the list above, a couple of things stand out. The only generation that seems to produce any abundance of great leaders is the Civic generations. The others, usually only have one or two, standouts among many whose names are know only to historians. The two great leaders that were produced by the Idealistic generations, Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt came to power during times of crisis and in Roosevelt's case came to his greatest hour in his elder years. Howe and Strauss had expressed concern that Idealist coming to power during their middle years would have a difficult time overcoming a crisis, IE, George W Bush. They also noted that the military leaders during a crisis were most successful when they came from a reactive generation. Washington, U.S. Grant and Eisenhower, all of our current military leaders are Boomers, soon to be replaced by up and coming Reactive X-Geners.

The above observations are only brain food for thinking about the past and a hint at what the future may produce.

McCain and the OODA Loop

A-4's over North Vietnam

John McCain being taken prisoner October 26, 1967 North Vietnam

The OODA Loop in Practice

Forty one years ago next month will mark the anniversary of an unexpected consequence that has led John McCain to be where he is today. On October 26, 1967 John McCain was at the controls of an A-4 Skyhawk fighter bomber over North Vietnam. His mission was cut short by a SAM missile, and he spent the next five years as a POW.

A lot has been speculated about McCain's pick of Sarah Palin as his running mate. The articles below offer some reason behind how his mind works. Being a fighter pilot, McCain seemed to channel another lesser know pilot from the Vietnam War who has left an enduring legacy among those who follow military strategy.

Michael Barone of U.S. News and World Report writes.

John McCain was trained as a fighter pilot. In his selection of Sarah Palin, and in his convention and campaigning since, he has shown that he learned an important lesson from his fighter pilot days: He has gotten inside Barack Obama's OODA loop.

That term was the invention of the great fighter pilot and military strategist John Boyd. It's an acronym for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.

Read the whole story below:

McCain Flies His Campaign Past Obama

And as Barone noted:

I am not the only one to notice that John McCain and Sarah Palin have gotten inside the Obama campaign's (and mainstream media's) OODA loop. Blogger Charlie Martin sprang into pixels on www.americanthinker.com before I could spring into print with this column.

McCain and the OODA Loop

The line of the day, by Barone:

John Boyd would have been a terrific political consultant.

There will be more to come in the next two weeks about John Boyd, and how his strategy transcends all forms of combat, military, business and politics.

Consequential Elections: A Brief History, Part II

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

Andrew Jackson

Theodore Roosevelt

In a continuing series Kenneth T. Walsh Washington correspondent for the US News and World Report has been writing a ten part series about the most consequential elections in American History. I previously posted Consequential Elections: A Brief History where the first two elections were profiled.

The series continues with:

The Most Consequential Elections in History: George Washington and the Election of 1789

The Most Consequential Elections in History: Thomas Jefferson and the Election of 1800

The Most Consequential Elections in History: Andrew Jackson and the Election of 1828

The Most Consequential Elections in History: Theodore Roosevelt and the Election of 1904

The Next, Most Consequential Election in American History

The election this year will join the exalted list of most consequential elections in American history no matter who wins. If Obama wins, he will beome the first mixed race person elected to the Presidency. If McCain wins, a woman, representing a group that for 144 years of American History, were disenfranchised and had no say in the affairs of government will be the Vice President. A truly historic moment in our history, when race, and gender give way to merit.

I will start out by linking several articles that examine the latest choice made by often labeled Maverick John McCain. When John McCain selected Alaska governor Sarah Palin for his running mate, the perturbation across the media release a tidal wave of articles and blog posts.

McCain Makes Calculated Bet in the Wall Street Journal by LAURA MECKLER, ELIZABETH HOLMES and JIM CARLTON.

The Battle for Women Begins in the Washington Post by Juliet Eilperin and Anne Kornblut
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Campaigns Shift as McCain Choice Alters the Race in the New York Times by By ADAM NAGOURNEY, JIM RUTENBERG and JEFF ZELENY

Leading off the blog comments about the choice is Thomas Barnett with Interesting difference in Veep choices .

Tom then pens a in depth analysis of the race as seen from the prospective of a grand strategist. Still deeply but closely divided. In this post, Tom looks at the whole process and offers comment on why things are so close.

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And bringing up the rear, a cross section of bloggers offering their views on the most recent choice in politics.

Zenpundit tdaxp Lexington Green Fabius Maximus Progressive Historians Purpleslog.

And finally, from Victor Davis Hanson , A Maverick Choice,

And for a peek at the current projected polling. RCP Electoral Count

Bound Together, True Citizens of the World

McCain Family Photo

Cindy McCain in Vietnam 2008

USS Mercy Hospital Ship

Bound Together

A lot has recently been made of Senator Obama's reference to being a citizen of the world. My fellow blogger, CDR Salamander had a recent post. His post reveals a side of a candidate that regardless of political stripe, should make every American proud. I will post it in full.

The audacity of ignorance

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here – what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?
Barack ObamaCampaign Speech in Berlin, GermanyJuly 24, 2008

Action:
(I)n 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life, so Mrs. McCain brought the child home to America with her. She was met at the airport by her husband, who asked what all this was about.

Mrs. McCain replied that the child desperately needed surgery and years of rehabilitation. "I hope she can stay with us," she told her husband. Mr. McCain agreed.Today that child is their teenage daughter Bridget....

T)here was a second infant Mrs. McCain brought back. She ended up being adopted by a young McCain aide and his wife.

"We were called at midnight by Cindy," Wes Gullett remembers, and "five days later we met our new daughter Nicki at the L.A. airport wearing the only clothing Cindy could find on the trip back, a 7-Up T-shirt she bought in the Bangkok airport." Today, Nicki is a high school sophomore. Mr. Gullett told me, "I never saw a hospital bill" for her care.

Taking up on Cmdr Salamanders post, Mrs McCain has been recently subjected to dicing from some in the self appointed elitist media.

Joy Behar Hosts Larry King Live and Her Co-Hosts Call In (video), where she made comments how Mrs McCain was such a boooooring guest, when she was on The View, and Michelle Obama was soooooo...intelligent and interesting..and would make such a great First Lady..

Too bad she missed this about Cindy McCain,Cindy's trip to Vietnam. Mrs McCain was in Vietnam during a visit by the USNS Mercy-Hospital Ship , which during a port call in Na Trang.

Total Patients Seen: 11,576

Surgeries Performed Aboard: 234

Engineering projects were held at 5 different locations (3 local clinics; 1 rehab/education center; and 1 orphanage).Our Bio-Med technicians were able to repair and bring back into operation over $300,000 worth of medical equipment at various clinics.

Last Day in Nha Trang

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The crew of the USS Mercy are examples of Americans who are reaching out to their fellow humans and lending a hand to make a difference. They do it without fanfare and when their mission complete, return to home and their own families.

Thousands of other American citizens emulate the compassion that the McCain's privately demonstrate. Most are content to reach out to their fellow humans across the globe and share their love, compassion and support. The author of the blog that leads my list of Favorites is such a person, Thomas Barnett who in 2004 adopted a daughter from China. He chronicled the experience in a series of blog posts that endeared him to his readers. I will indulge you with a couple of them to better understand the type of person whom is willing to reach out to do what they can to make the world a better place.

Crossing into our tomorrow

I know that face (some concluding thoughts on our China adoption trip)

Some may rail that we must take care of ourselves first, the heck with the rest of the world. That is a normal reaction within every family and tribe. But, everyone in this country is geometrically better off than those living in failed states and abject poverty, and we all have the opportunity to make ourselves better off with hard work and study. We are the host nation to millions who have come here for that chance. Our immigration problem is not because we are the worlds largest welfare state. It is because of the opportunity to succeed, and for one's children to live a better life. I applaud anyone who reaches out to help here, or abroad and shares themselves and their resources by their own free choice.

One of the other links on this blog is to a book, Bound Together: by Nayan Chanda. It is most helpful to understand how the human species came to the place we are today, with billions better off than just a few decades ago.

It traces the initial globalization of the human species, when in the late Ice Age, a tiny group of our ancestors walked out of Africa in search of better food and security. In fifty thousand years of wandering along ocean coasts and chasing game across Central Asia, they finally settled on all the continents. Along the way, they changed their pigmentation and facial features, and developed different languages and cultures as well. The period of divergence came to a close with the end of the Ice Age. Traders, preachers, soldiers, and adventurers from the emerging urban civilizations of the Levant, India, and China began connecting with one another, launching the process of globalization.

If anyone wants to better understand this fact. I direct you to the National Geographic Genographic project. Where one can trace their genes back through time and understand that we are all truly bound together. As humans continue to come together at intersections, the decision is either collide, or learn to cooperate and work together. Sounds simple but we have been doing just that, in a constant yin and yang, of war and trade. Understanding of who we are and that stripping off the bark will reveal the same person underneath, is essential to continuing our existence.

A Post That Should Worry All Americans

My fellow blogmeister Mark of Zenpundit has published A Call For Radical Transparency in Politics a post by Bruce Kesler of Democracy Project.

The post is a must read for all those who worry about the undue influence that comes when large contributions are made to political leaders and institutes of learning and culture by wealthy interest groups. In the past the concern was big business, and labor unions, it now appears that foreign entities, governments and others, have bought their way into American politics and many of the institutes that shape our culture. I think that this is so pervasive that I am going to do what Zenpundit and Chicago Boyz* have done, and reproduce it in full with Mark's comments.

Mark begins:

My friend Bruce Kesler, who keeps a sharper eye on the fine details of American politics than I do, is dead square right in a recent post at Democracy Project that I reproduce here in full:
Hidden Foreign Contributions Affect US Elections


US election law forbids non-Americans to contribute directly to federal candidates, and qualified donations above $200 are available to public scrutiny. There is a huge loophole – or, more correctly, shroud – over contributions by foreigners to US non-profits, who heavily shape public discussion affecting our elections – and other policies. (There’s, also, some indication that the $200 cut-off for full disclosure of contributions to our campaigns may be another loophole being exploited by some foreigners.)


IRS Form 990 generally requires that non-profits list contributors and their addresses who give $5000 or more. However, non-profits are not required to publicly divulge who they are (with the exception of private foundations and 527’s).


Non-profits include 501(c)(4)’s, which are estimated to spend in 2008 well more than the $424-million that 527’s spent to influence the 2004 elections.

Another area of concern is donations made by foreigners to our universities. Although New York State requires that such contributions be revealed, there is no enforcement and filings are often not made.

In Britain, it is estimated, more funding comes from the Mid East for Islamic Studies departments than from the government.

Ministers labelled Islamic studies a "strategic subject" and said the "effective and accurate teaching" of it in universities could help community cohesion and counter extremism.Similar concerns have been raised in the US about the influence of Mid East contributors on our universities’ curriculum's, and the faculty who influence public discussion. See here and here, for examples.

Former presidents Carter and Clinton have received tens of millions in donations, and more, from foreign sources for their foundations, yet the public knows very little about from whom or how much. Meanwhile, Carter and Clinton take frequent public stands on public policy and candidates for office.

A draft has been released of a revised IRS Form 990. It increases exposure on governance issues, but retains the shroud over contributors to non-profits. At the very least, foreign contributors should be revealed publicly, at least for amounts over the $200 of election laws.
You can send your comments to the IRS during the comment period. It’s as simple as an email to Form990Revision@irs.gov

Mark writes:

Bravo to Bruce for highlighting this important but generally unrecognized problem.

One of the ironies of Beltway incumbent preferred campaign finance regulation like the odious McCain-Feingold law is that it manages to combine restrictions of the political activities and free speech rights of American citizens while granting opacity to wealthy foreigners who seek to influence political discourse here through generous donations to foundations, educational organizations, think tanks, universities, presidential libraries and other institutions that shape our intellectual life. It is completely understandable, given the potential impact of American policies on the rest of the world that other states and their sundry notables would seek to make their voice heard here. To a certain extent, when it’s above board public diplomacy and cultural exchanges, it’s even a good thing. What’s unacceptable is that foreign interests can often buy such influence - which is what they are really doing - under the radar or even behind the shield of legal secrecy. If some of our finest universities were people then they would have already had to register as foreign agents a long, long, loooooooong, time ago.


The same might be said of some former presidents. Or of presidential candidates.


The answer here is not to go on a fruitless legal jihad to ban foreign money, which at times does get turned toward humanitarian or genuinely educational purposes but to require radical transparency of our think tanks, universities, charities and other institutions enjoying tax deductible status but are dedicated to indirectly influencing the political process or policy formation. If an American institution or scholar wants to shill for the Wahabbi Lobby by working for a tank on the take from a senior Saudi prince, or accept grants from PLA-affiliated Chinese corporations, Japanese billionaires, mobbed-up Russian “businessmen” or other foreign sources, fine, but a highly visible disclaimer to that fact ought to be mandatory. If Carnegie or AEI or Harvard departments are advising presidential candidates on Mideast policy then contributions emanating from that region are relevant to the discussion.

If accepting the check in public is cause for dismay then there’s a word for what’s really going on:

Graft.

This revelation comes during former President Carter's trip to the Middle East where he spent most of his time cozying up to Hamas and Hezbollah, after denouncing Israel for the past several months. It would also call to mind recent policy changes in universities in Great Britain and the U.S. making special accommodation for Islam, as they decry any demonstration of faith by other religions as violating the separation of church and state.

It is time for Americans to demand that institutions and all government officials past and present be held accountable as private citizens in their receiving foreign contributions. Some politicians pander to the fear of losing jobs offshore and some universities pretend to be enlightened, while in reality those who we have entrusted to educate our young and govern our destiny, line their pockets with gold from silent masters.

Tom Barnett's "Fireside Chat" with the American People

Tom Barnett sits down in his column this week to have a short "fireside chat" with the American people. He writes things that a good leader should have the courage to say.

He begins: These are better days, just not for America right now

Americans feel down right now. Unhappy with our current leaders, we've not yet fallen in love with any prospective presidential candidates. The world seems more challenging than ever, with plenty of scary news out of the Islamic world hitting us amidst record oil prices. Most humbling, as our economy teeters on the edge of its first serious recession in decades, our rescuing "cavalry" turns out to be foreign wealth funds!

Wish we could get back to where we once belonged?

Read on at: KnoxNews.

Tom writes of 13 areas where we can make a silk purse out of a sow's hide.

One of them speaks to violence in the World.

Speaking of guns, let me also remind you that our planet has never been more peaceful: fewer wars, less civil strife and the smallest-ever percentage of humanity engaged in or preparing for mass violence. Washington may wage global war, but nobody else is.

To lend support to this observation is an article by Harvard Professor, Steven Pinker,Steven Pinker on Wikipedia where he addresses the declining trends in violence.: A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

The other points contained in Barnett's column ring true. It's a message that any candidate truly interested in leading the American people should learn to articluate.

The Awakening of A New Generation

I got up this morning and began the ritual of visiting the web pages and blogs that have become my looking glass to view the changing world horizon. For the past several months I have sensed a change in the wind. A new generation is emerging and as time would proscribe, some of the elders are understanding this change.

Yesterday, I even heard, conservative talk show personality Sean Hannity admit that it was time for the Republicans to change, or become irrelvant. He took a lot of flak for admitting what I see is as the truth.

This thread of thought is repeated in a post by historian Victor Davis Hanson.
More "The Moral Economy"

Case in point is a series posts and articles that have appeared the past few days. I also sense it in conversations I have had with many of the young people who make up the generation born after 1981.

First off is a post by Steve DeAngelis on the The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur He writes that:

Business means jobs and jobs mean hope for a better future. At a time when the news is full of negative stories about the economy, conflicts, and crime, reading a column about hope in the future and about those determined to make the world a better place is refreshing.

The next day in a related post about the World Economic Forum in Davos. Steve refers back to his previous post and goes on to relate how some of the older generation seems to be getting it too. Profit-backed Social Philosophy

The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, draws an interesting and diverse crowd. Yesterday I wrote about the young, social entrepreneurs found there by New York Times' columnist Nicholas Kristof [The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur]. Most of those young people are relatively unknown. The Forum also attracts big names, however, like Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. John Markoff reports that Gates lectured a packed house on his social philosophy ["Bill Gates: Social Philosopher," New York Times/International Herald Tribune Davos Diary, 24 January 2008].

The gist of the posts are that social outreach is begining to surface as a driving force among people who have a concern for their fellow man. Altrusim aside, this means security for everyone.

To further this arguement are a couple of posts today by Tom Barnett about the next generation being felt in the Islamic World.The young and the restless and the right kind of caliphate .

The second post links an article in Business Week by Micheele Conlin about the issues that the 43 million strong generation of "echo Boomers" find important.The Millennials getting political

This brings me to my own sense of this generation. I have written before about examples of people who seem to get it, A Resilient Nation . I noted that one of the people I briefly profiled spent valuable time raising money for cancer and AIDS research, as she put herself through college. In conversations with her, and several other people of this generation including my own teenage son, you get a sense of what matters. They are realistic about the future. Aprehensive for sure, but realistic that the tab for over consumption is due. These young people know they will have to clean up the mess left by our departing generations. It is interesting that they all see themselves as Americans first, and not intending to abandon the ship to seek a better life in the developing world as some have, Jim Rogers investment guru, moving to Singapore as a case in point. In fact a few, including the young women working her way through college are intrigued with working for companies like Enterra Solutions, http://www.enterrasolutions.com/ or entering the diplomatic service.

Does this mean that this generation is fully prepared to take the reins and steer the ship of state. Counter points can be made when one considers that one third of all seniors in high school in 2007, failed to graduate. The ones who did and go on to contribute, seem to have an understanding of the world. Others are happy to be content to let society provide. But note the third most important issue on the list of political concerns is education.

1.Health, 2. economy, 3. education.

Most understand that in order to survive and thrive you need security. For a generation raised to have their external security guarenteed by the world's strongest military, physical security now means good health. Secondly, they realize that a good economy requires a good education. This is a Fire bell in the night to quote Thomas Jefferson, for those who desire to lead, to understand that change is the wind.