An HRC & HRC Production
If she runs, I’ll be there. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on why she supports gay marriage, and rights for all the world’s humans.
Archive for category: Politics
NYTimes
“We are a single France, undivided,” Mr. Hollande said after his investiture, promising a presidency of “dignity, simplicity and soberness.” He vowed that “the state will be impartial because it belongs to all of its citizens” and insisted that a united France could meet its difficult social and economic challenges, but warned that the country “cannot have sacrifices on one side and privilege on the other.”
via NYTimes
Funding censor busting technologies
Alec Ross, senior adviser for innovation to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visited LSE last night to discuss the State Department’s implementation of “21st Century Statecraft“, a relatively new initiative to better integrate “innovation” (read: the internet, social media, etc.) into American foreign policy and examine policies concerning the same. His lecture was concise and generally explained the principles they have adopted, strongly urged by Clinton’s own dedication to the subject. I admire the entire department’s work and am thrilled the secretary has spent so much time talking about issues like internet freedom.
I asked Mr. Ross about the State Department’s funding of internet censor busting technologies given the secretary’s speech in February and the recent (rather idle) threat from some members of Congress to take it away.
In her first major speech on the subject last January, Secretary Clinton warned, “nations that censor the internet should understand that our government is committed to helping promote internet freedom” and subsequently backed that up with $30 million in grant funding provided by Congress. The available grants, ranging from $500,000 to $8 million, have been slowly awarded to projects that enable activists and citizens around the world to circumvent censorship technologies like the Tor Project. Training and education programs are also funded.
We Made It
Today is National Coming Out Day in the UK. It’s a day to celebrate coming out and to raise awareness of LGBT issues around the world. It is usually a day of happiness and camaraderie with reflections on the hardships of coming out. This year it is marked with incredible sadness.
Seth Walsh, 13; Billy Lucas, 15; Tyler Clementi, 18; Asher Brown, 13; Zach Harrington, 19, took their lives this year. They were bullied, harassed and tormented for being gay.
Their deaths are tragic and an incredible loss to their families and communities. They were promising youths that could have achieved great things in this world – if only their peers and elders had been more accepting. Read more →
David Brooks on Sarah Palin
From an online discussion yesterday with Gail Collins:
She is not going to be the leader of any party and doesn’t seem to be inclined in that direction.
The Sarah Palin phenomenon is a media psychodrama and nothing more. It gives people on each side an excuse to vent about personality traits they despise, but it has nothing to do with government.
She is in 2010 what Jerry Falwell was from the mid-1990s until his death — a conservative cartoon inflated by media. Evangelicals used to say that Falwell had three main constituency groups — ABC, CBS and NBC.
Source: New York Times via Andrew Sullivan
My personal morning briefing
I was thinking this morning about what sources I rely on for my news and which ones I read religiously. My Google Reader feed is my pride and joy. Categorized, filtered and always trimmed to cut the sources that are lacking, it is my go-to for a look at the world. But, sometimes I’m just too busy to get through the hundreds of new items every day. There is one source that always gets to the top, though.
The FP Morning Brief, from the writers at Foreign Policy, is that perfect dose of international news in the morning that reminds you there’s a world beyond the U.S. and Michael Jackson. Well-formatted emails, properly linked and expertly summarized at 9am, the FP Morning Brief is my favorite daily aggregate of news. While most get ignored or pushed to the side for more urgent emails, I always pause for my FP fix.
It’s like having my own intern that compiles the best news from around the world every day and sending it to me in a perfect little email. Maybe one day they’ll let me add my own header to the email like “Ben’s super important morning briefing from his own private news readers”. Some day…maybe. Until then, I let the staff at foreignpolicy.com and their blog, FP Passport, do it for me. They’re so kind.
Click here to get your own super important briefing.
Inauguration 2009
I’ve been absent awhile, but thought I’d write a few notes about the past week so that I don’t forget it. While the photos and videos won’t be going anywhere (backups!), I fear the raw emotion felt throughout this city will fade in time.
I’ve always been a sucker for parades. Whether it was my grandfather’s recordings of bagpipes and drums played on full, the countless parades my parents took me to as a wee one, or my affinity for bright and shiny things (haha), heralding trumpets and banners have always claimed a soft spot in my heart. It goes without saying that the inauguration of a president ranks right up there with the greatest celebrations in the world.
I even went to George W. Bush’s second inauguration, ticket in hand, just to see how it all went down. I was so torn between thinking “holy crap this is amazing,” and “wtf? I’m actually enjoying this? BUSH!? COME ON!” Alas, whoever it may be, the fact that our nation can transfer power without bloodshed or strife is pretty amazing in comparison to the rest of the world.
This week we inaugurated our 44th president, and the pomp didn’t disappoint. This time, though, the pomp didn’t matter. What filled me with emotion wasn’t the revelry supplied by lights and banners or the institutional showmanship, however spectacular they may be. It was the realization that this style of politics that has jaded me throughout my education in high school and college has finally come to an end. Read more →
Radio to YouTube
President-elect Barack Obama recorded his first weekly address today, laying out policy objectives and restating some of the problems the country faces today. The weekly address has been a staple of Presidential communications for decades.
As many predicted, however, he made history again when he posted it not just on the radio and not on TV, but YouTube. Cross-posting it to several other video services, as well on the radio, he’s reaching Americans wherever they may be.
