..out of the dark

"Biden Sees Vice President's Role as 'Adviser in Chief,' Aides Say"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/05/AR2008110500107.html

"There will be cc's and not bcc's," said Antony Blinken, a top Biden adviser, referring to the practice in the current administration in which Cheney aides receive e-mails on key matters, but without other recipients knowing the vice president's staff is involved. "There is not going to be a shadow operation."

Biden aides said the senator from Delaware does not intend to take on a defining issue, as Al Gore sought to do with his "reinventing government" initiative, which aimed to improve the efficiency of the federal bureaucracy. Biden's team says such a project distracts from a vice president's ability to serve as a general adviser to the president.

Instead, they said, he is likely to take on special projects. They cited as an example Gore's work in the Clinton administration in helping negotiate an agreement with the Russian government to stop it from selling weapons to Iran.

"The single worst expression in American politics"
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/02/biden/index.html

[Joe Biden:]After next Tuesday, the very critics he has now and the rest of America will be calling him something else - they will be calling him the 44th president of the United States of America, our commander in chief Barack Obama!

"Obama Modifies 'Yes We Can' Message To Exclude Area Loser"
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/obama_modifies_yes_we_can_message

'Yes We Can, Except Nate Walsh,' Obama Says

"I Have a Dream"
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/martin-luther-king-jr.html

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

(read: Digby's on the fifteenth bout of Martinis, and has too many tears in her eyes to write.)


"Asian stocks up on Obama victory"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7710106.stm

Asian stocks have risen following the election of Democrat Senator Barack Obama as the next US president.
(in- line text: "There are hopes the US will bounce back, helping exporting firms").
(...)
However, not all markets rose. India's Sensex index fell 2.8%, and in Europe, where shares had risen strongly on Tuesday, the markets were also down. Both the FTSE 100 in London and the Cac 40 index in Paris were down by about 3%.

/Change /

Shares in New York rose on Tuesday as people in the US went to the polls for the presidential election. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 305.5 points at 9,625.3.

Doug Kass, founder and president of hedge fund Seabreeze Partners Management, said the Wall Street rally was an "Obama bounce, not an Obama rally".

"It's growing clear that the recession is going to have a shelf life unlike the last recessions in both scope and duration," he added.

(i.e., sigh of relief and creeping realisation that no more government- sponsored boosts will take place in the medium to long term. Similar scenarios should take place in the Middle- east as the Iraq mandate expires in December.)

"Afghanistan blir Obamas test for NATO"
(Afghanistan will be Obama's test for NATO)
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/usavalg/article2749786.ece

Melby tror at Obama vil legge sterkt press på de andre NATO-landene om å bidra mer militært. Han spår at Norge vil bli bedt om å delta i alle typer operasjoner, med unntak av krigsoperasjoner i Sør-Afghanistan.
(Melby thinks Obama will put heavy pressure to get the other NATO- countries involved militarily. He predicts that Norway will be asked to commit troops to all types of operations (in Afghanistan) - with the exception of war- operations in South- Afghanistan.)

- Norge argumenterer for de kollektive institusjonenes betydning. Nå vil de samme argumentene bli brukt mot oss. Amerikanerne vil si at hvis man mener at NATO er viktig, må man vise solidaritet. Det kan ikke være slik at bare noen nasjoners soldater driver krig og dør, sier Melby.
(- Norway argues for the significance of the collective institutions. Now the same arguments will be used against us. The Americans will say that if you think NATO is important, you must show solidarity. It won't do if only the soliders of some nations go to war and die, says Melby.)

For norske politikere tror han det vil bli «tyngre å si nei» til Obama enn til Bush.
(Melby thinks it will be "heavier to say no" to Obama than Bush)

Personally, "I think" it will be easier for everyone to tell the US to go fuck themselves, for the simple reason that we did not - and do still not - oppose the Iraq or Afghanistan projects in their current forms just because it was led by Bush. There are other reasons having to do with the fact that NATO will not be a substitution for the UN, and we will not endorse an expansion of NATO in either military or economical terms.

So the next big question will be what eventually will replace US damage control, as well as floundering european attempts to turn the EU into a military union.

Some would hope that the result is a more cautious direction based on inclusion, and not an expansion of influence - but who knows..

Anyway. Congrats, the US. You still suck, but at least some of you aren't proud of it. I salute you.