..out of the dark

...closing Guantanamo, ending torture and rendition, restoring habeas corpus, rejuvenating surveillance oversight, withdrawing from Iraq, applying the rule of law to political leaders past and present -- but it's at least as important that this be accomplished in the right way, that our constitutional framework be restored. That means restricting the President's role to what the Constitution prescribes and having Congress fulfill its assigned duties and perform its core functions.

"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.

[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!

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

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.

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.

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)

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