Day: February 11, 2011

Robert Gibbs Leaves, Jay Carney Becomes Obama’s Press Spokesman

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Today marks the end of the tenure of Robert Gibbs as President Barack Obama’s press spokesman, and the succession of former Time Magazine journalist Jay Carney to that challenging position.

Gibbs worked with Obama since he announced for the Senate seat in Illinois in 2004, and will continue to work behind the scenes for the reelection campaign of the President. He was well liked by most journalists on the White House beat, but the position was starting to become a stressful one for him, as it is one of the more difficult jobs, to be the public spokesman for the President on a daily basis.

Carney, who was most recently the press spokesman for Vice President Joe Biden, with a strong journalistic background, and also married to ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman, should be able to stay on good relations with the press, at a time when the public image of the President should be even more significant, as he heads into the re-election campaign.

It was amazing to realize that Gibbs left his position on the single most historic day of the Obama Presidency, with the stunning success of the Egyptian Revolution!

Republican Attack On PBS And NPR: Attempt To Suppress Knowledge And Analysis!

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The Republican Party is setting out to destroy the public education system nationally and in many states, and part of that attack is the plan to zero budget the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio.

Both PBS and NPR have been contributing to the knowledge, entertainment, and education of the American people since the mid 1960s, part of the many contributions of the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson.

But because conservatives and many Republicans hate both PBS and NPR because of their perceived liberal and progressive bent, they want to wipe it out, and take away all of the benefits of both over the past 45 years.

This is, effectively, promoting censorship and ignorance, and it should be condemned, and petitions, emails and phone calls need to be sent to the House of Representatives to call upon them to stop these intolerant steps, as they try to suppress freedom of expression.

The amount of public funding of PBS and NPR is so minimal, and will not have any real effect on the national debt or deficit.

It is short sighted and demagogic to call for the removal of public support for television and radio programming that is the highest quality found in the communications industry today!

A Day Of Historic Proportions: Egypt’s Revolution Triumphs!

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Today is a day of celebration for Egypt, the Middle East, and the whole world.

The peaceful overthrow of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak in a democratic non violent revolution is a cause for euphoria, and it gives a warning to the other Middle East autocracies, and dictatorship everywhere, including Iran and North Korea. It is a followup of the liberation of Eastern Europe in 1989, symbolized by the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The power of social media, which cannot be easily controlled or monitored, is a method by which the masses can express their desires and lead to removal of despots. No one could have imagined the impact of Facebook and Twitter on the events that transpired in Egypt. Imagine, that in 18 days, Egypt transformed, and a thirty year dictatorship collapsed.

Egypt has now experienced two events of massive proportions that took 18 days to develop–this present revolution, and the Yom Kippur War where Anwar Sadat defeated Israel and took some land back in 1973 from the earlier 1967 Six Day War, but yet moved toward American friendship soon after and eventually to a peace agreement with Israel, including recognition of Israel, and a joint Nobel Peace Prize for Sadat and Israel’s leader, Menachem Begin.

This is also a moment to salute President Barack Obama, who handled this historic crisis deftly, supporting the masses of Egypt and pressuring Mubarak in private, while using carefully crafted language in public. No one could have handled this crisis better, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates did a fantastic job in assisting him and others to deal with this transforming event. This will go down as one of his greatest triumphs in the Presidency!

Even better, Barack Obama comes across as a hero to ordinary Egyptians, and by his open minded attitude to the Muslim world, he makes us a safer nation, but with full awareness that there are radical Muslim enemies who wish this nation ill, but diplomacy is essential if there is ever to be a potential for long term peace in the 21st century world!