The Senate Rebuilds Pakistan

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.)
Photo by Michael Ruhl

In the next 5 years, the Pakistani infrastructure will be fortified by almost $10 billion American dollars, if Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) have anything to say about it. The aptly titled Kerry-Lugar Bill will provided money for rebuilding the lives of civilians in war torn Pakistan.

Both Kerry and Lugar said that most of the money that has been funneled into Pakistan in the past few years has gone towards security. The aim of this bill is to shift the balance, to place more of an emphasis on infrastructure.

The Senators want to use the money for building schools, improving health care, building bridges, water projects, and other elements of infrastructure. Kerry said that the target projects are “things that would improve life and give people a sense of progress” to civilians.

The money would also be used for ensuring an independent media, expanding human rights and the rule of law, expanding transparency in government, rooting out political corruption and countering the drug trade.

Additionally military funding would be conditioned upon several things, including Pakistani security forces preventing al Qaeda and Taliban forces from operating in Pakistan. The military forces would not be able to interfere in politics or in the judicial process, according to the provisions of the bill.

The legislation bill would give $1.5 billion each year from FY 2009-2013, and would recommend similar amounts of money over the subsequent five years. There would be required benchmarks to measuring how effective the funding is, and the President will have to submit semi-annual reports to Congress about progress made.

Dog the blue dog

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Grassroots advocacy groups are launching an offensive against conservative Democrats in Congress who are opposing President Obama’s legislation. Campaign for America’s Future has launched a program called “Dog the Blue Dogs”, which is aimed at persuading members of the Blue Dog Coalition into voting for President Obama’s legislation. The Blue Dog Coalition is a group of moderate and conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives.

Bob Borosage, President of Campaign for America’s Future, said that several Blue Dog Democrats are conspiring with the Republicans to be obstructionists of the president’s agenda, and are partnering with the likes of talk show host Rush Limbaugh to try to make Obama fail all together. The response from Borosage and groups like USAction is going to be a ground offensive against these Democratic members of Congress. The plan is to run ads in each member’s home district, informing the constituents of how their congressional representatives voted against the President. Borosage said that the campaign is about educating the public, not partisanship.

Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) has been painted with a target for his position on the president’s budget. William McNary, President of USAction and part of Unity 09, said that his organization was going to be mobilizing grassroots efforts in Bayh’s home state of Indiana during the upcoming congressional recess, but could not elaborate on what specific strategies would be used. McNary said that if Senator Bayh wants some specific changes made to the Obama budget, he should express that in a clear and articulate manner, instead of simply voting against the bill.

McNary said that the public should not let members of Congress get “cold feet” about change. Borosage believes this reluctance by some members is because of the power of entrenched interests, rather than individual political stances. He continued that these legislators must “be heard by their constituents, not just their contributors”.

Borosage denied planning this with any of the Congressional Leadership, and said that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel was also not involved.

U.S. helping to pull the trigger for gun and drug war in Mexico

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

“Firearms from the United States civilian gun market are fueling violence on both sides of our border with Mexico...The United States, it doesn’t just make trafficking military style weapons to them easy it practically compels that traffic.” said Tom Diaz, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Violence Policy Center and author of “Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America.” at a Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing titled “Money, Guns, and Drugs: Are U.S. Inputs Fueling Violence on the U.S.- Mexico Border?”

Last year an estimated 6,290 drug-related murders occurred in Mexico and the death toll is still rising. Congressman John Mica (R-Fla.) said. “We’ve got to help them regain control with a plan and a policy of that country. It’s totally out of control, it is a slaughter house and its on our borders and it's spilling into our cities.”

“Mexico matters to the United States...not just because Mexico is our neighbor...it is an issue where we are both deeply involved...U.S. drug sales account for as much as $10 to $25 billion each year that is sent back to Mexico to fuel violence and to support the cartels,” said Andrew Selee, the Director at the Woodrow Wilson Center Mexico Institute. Selee offered three recommendations on how to stop the flow of guns and drugs between Mexico and the United States. Selee expressed that the U.S. should reduce the consumption of drugs by investing in drug prevention programs; second, to disrupt the billions of dollars that flow from drug sales in the U.S. and back to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico by developing the intelligence capabilities to detect where the money is being transported from and to where. Third, to limit the flow of high caliber weapons from the United States to Mexico by increasing the number of ATF inspectors at the border and to increase cooperation with other law enforcement agencies.

Jonathon Paton, Arizona State Senator gave his thoughts on how to stop drug and gun trafficking as well and said, “the other thing we could do is to look at comprehensive immigration reform...which will allow us to focus on the real problem at hand which is the smugglers and not the people that are trying to find employment in the United States.”

Other representatives expressed their thoughts on the issue like Congressman Dan Burton (R-Ind.), who said, “I think drugs are the scourge of the Earth, I think that anybody that deals in drugs ought to be put in jail permanently or killed. That’s how bad I think drugs are.”

Endless delay won’t get the job done

President Barack Obama spoke at a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Indiana on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.

After losing nearly 600,000 jobs in the past month alone, the President said that, “We’ve had a good debate.  Now it’s time to act.  That’s why I am calling on Congress to pass this bill immediately.  Folks here in Elkhart and across America need help right now, and they can’t afford to keep on waiting for folks in Washington to get this done.”

Some of the critics of the bill say that jobs being created will only be government jobs, but according to the President, nearly 80,000 jobs will be created in Indiana and more than 90% of those will be in the private sector.

During the question and answer session, people wanted to know where the money will be going, and the President said that a website will be created at recovery.gov which will give people a report on how the money is being spent.

The President said that “I also can’t tell you with one hundred percent certainty that everything in this plan will work exactly as we hope.  But I can tell you with complete confidence that endless delay or paralysis in Washington in the face of this crisis will bring only deepening disaster.”

The President wants tax-cuts to go to the middle class and said that, “When you give a tax break to working families they will spend it,” and “When you give it to the wealthier families they just put it away somewhere, so it’s not circulating in the economy.”

“We know that even with this plan, the road ahead won’t be easy.  This crisis has been a long time in the making, and we know that we cannot turn it around overnight.  Recovery will likely be measured in years, not weeks or months.  But we also know that our economy will be stronger for generations to come if we commit ourselves to the work that needs to be done today.  And being here in Elkhart, I am more confident than ever before that we will get where we need to be.” said President Obama.

by Suzia van Swol, Talk Radio News Service-University of New Mexico

Obama campaign conference call discusses views from Pennsylvania on NAFTA, job losses, and the Clinton campaign

The Obama campaign held a conference call with International Brotherhood of Teamsters President James Hoffa and Rep. Ryan Dvorak (D-ID) to discuss voter opinions in Pennsylvania and Indiana, and the role of Mark Penn in Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Hoffa said the current trend in Pennsylvania is that Clinton’s numbers are going down, and Obama is gaining on her. Hoffa said he has been campaigning for Obama at teamster’s conferences, talking about issues on trade, employee free choice, and Obama’s vision to keep jobs in the country and amend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He said the aftermath of NAFTA is “still going on, still devastating America.” Hoffa said that Obama told him he was going to amend NAFTA and reverse the provisions that provide subsidies and tax relief for companies that leave the United States. Dvorak said Indiana also started with support for Clinton, but momentum is now moving forward to support Obama.

Hoffa also said that the latest issue with Clinton’s former chief strategist Mark Penn has hurt her credibility, and the “smartest thing she can do is to jettison him.” When asked to comment on comparisons between Penn and Obama’s senior economic policy adviser Austan Goolsbee’s meeting with officials at the Canadian consulate, Hoffa said there was “no comparison” because Penn was getting paid to lobby, and Goolsbee was just attending a meeting.

Hoffa was also asked to compare the labor situation in Pennsylvania to Ohio. He said Ohio was perhaps even more devastated by job movement than Pennsylvania, but that even though Clinton beat Obama in Ohio, he is still closing in on her in Pennsylvania. He said the movement for Obama is surprising and encouraging, and that unions are working hard to support him.