This is meant to be a PRIVATE family blog. Just a way for our far-flung family to communicate with each other. Nothing juicy. If you are not a part of our immediate family, and you ended up here accidentally (or not so accidentally) please use the same door to exit that you used to come in. THANK YOU.
WHO is behind Grassfire? Smells fishy to me. Have you read much about them? I wouldn't be so hasty to sign!!!
BTW, this is the Jewish Press's take on Obama:
A New President More Articles By Editorial Board Editorial Board Posted Nov 12 2008
As he moves to form his administration, it is instructive to see President-elect Obama surround himself almost exclusively with former Clinton administration officials who, we might note, are firmly in the American political mainstream.
What is emerging is certainly not a picture of some closet socialist bent on fundamentally restructuring the U.S. economy or abandoning the notion of America as the world's undisputed economic and political/military leader.
So far, at least, President-elect Obama appears to appreciate the enormous challenges facing our country and the need to take prompt but practical steps in dealing with them. (Moreover, the notion that any one man could, even if he so desired, bring about a sea change in the deeply rooted American dynamic was always questionable at best.)
This page made no bones about our support of Sen. McCain and our discomfort with many of Mr. Obama's positions and much of his political history. His relationships with some individuals who despise America and Israel and who blame the threats and actions of rogue countries and terrorists on American foreign policy bothered us no end, as did his unconvincing attempts to explain those relationships. We were also made uneasy by his promise to level the international playing field and his blessing the notion of "spreading the wealth" here at home.
We took Mr. Obama to task over several of his statements on the Middle East, most notably his transparent flip-flop on Jerusalem and his warning that while he considered himself a true friend and reliable supporter of Israel, he would not necessarily support the "Likud line."
In truth, on these and related issues, he was expounding no differently than have other Democrats - Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, etc. And so we never gave credence to the extravagant Internet-fueled slanders depicting Mr. Obama as some Jew-hating Manchurian candidate colluding with the mullahs and other enemies of Israel.
Our differences with Mr. Obama were on substance alone, and our thrust was always that we favored the policy generally pursued - though not as consistently as we would have wished - by President Bush, allowing Israel and the Palestinians to work out their problems on their own. Advertisement Delta Airlines
We have long felt the only way to peace in the Middle East is for the Palestinians and the Arab world to recognize that Israel will not be pressured by outside forces. So Mr. Obama's critical comments about the Bush administration's failure to "engage" in the so-called peace process raised a red flag in our minds.
We also thought that candidate Obama's vow to sit at the table with such international terrorist states as Iran was a dangerous signal of weakness to adversaries who have long sought legitimacy and who could be expected to take advantage of any sign that a new American administration was prepared to let bygones be bygones and paper over their crimes.
Last week in this space we suggested that whatever his vision for the future, the president-elect would be overtaken in the short run by the crippling problems now confronting this country. If he does not do something quickly about the economy, the next four years will be a shambles for his administration and a catastrophe for the country. And if he fails to address the international challenges as exemplified by the announcement from the Russians the other day that they will place missiles around Poland, America's long-term interests around the world will be severely compromised, both in terms of balance of power and, perhaps, more important, the image of the leader of the free world as someone who can be trifled with.
It is significant, we think, that sometime over this past weekend President-elect Obama's transition website, Change.gov, deleted most of what had been an ambitious agenda of some 25 specific policy items affecting a wide array of concerns - including the Middle East. It has now been drawn down to a vague one-paragraph commitment to revive the economy and deal with health care, education, social security, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and "prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, among many other domestic and foreign policy objectives."
Finally, those who detected something sinister or nefarious about candidate Obama's attitude toward Jews have to deal with his appointment of Rahm Emanuel as his White House chief of staff. That would be Rahm Emanuel, former IDF volunteer, son of an Irgun fighter, member of an Orthodox synagogue and father of children who attend Jewish day school. They also have to deal with Mr. Obama's appointment of his longtime adviser and strategist David Axelrod, originally from New York's Lower East Side, as a senior counselor in the new administration.
We may have backed his opponent, but Barack Obama has been elected the 44th president of the United States and now deserves the support of all Americans. He faces challenges of the sort that few incoming presidents have had to confront. We're still plenty skeptical, and we certainly won't hesitate to criticize him, but this is a time of new beginnings, and we wish him well.
1 comment:
WHO is behind Grassfire? Smells fishy to me. Have you read much about them? I wouldn't be so hasty to sign!!!
BTW, this is the Jewish Press's take on Obama:
A New President
More Articles By Editorial Board
Editorial Board
Posted Nov 12 2008
As he moves to form his administration, it is instructive to see President-elect Obama surround himself almost exclusively with former Clinton administration officials who, we might note, are firmly in the American political mainstream.
What is emerging is certainly not a picture of some closet socialist bent on fundamentally restructuring the U.S. economy or abandoning the notion of America as the world's undisputed economic and political/military leader.
So far, at least, President-elect Obama appears to appreciate the enormous challenges facing our country and the need to take prompt but practical steps in dealing with them. (Moreover, the notion that any one man could, even if he so desired, bring about a sea change in the deeply rooted American dynamic was always questionable at best.)
This page made no bones about our support of Sen. McCain and our discomfort with many of Mr. Obama's positions and much of his political history. His relationships with some individuals who despise America and Israel and who blame the threats and actions of rogue countries and terrorists on American foreign policy bothered us no end, as did his unconvincing attempts to explain those relationships. We were also made uneasy by his promise to level the international playing field and his blessing the notion of "spreading the wealth" here at home.
We took Mr. Obama to task over several of his statements on the Middle East, most notably his transparent flip-flop on Jerusalem and his warning that while he considered himself a true friend and reliable supporter of Israel, he would not necessarily support the "Likud line."
In truth, on these and related issues, he was expounding no differently than have other Democrats - Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, etc. And so we never gave credence to the extravagant Internet-fueled slanders depicting Mr. Obama as some Jew-hating Manchurian candidate colluding with the mullahs and other enemies of Israel.
Our differences with Mr. Obama were on substance alone, and our thrust was always that we favored the policy generally pursued - though not as consistently as we would have wished - by President Bush, allowing Israel and the Palestinians to work out their problems on their own.
Advertisement
Delta Airlines
We have long felt the only way to peace in the Middle East is for the Palestinians and the Arab world to recognize that Israel will not be pressured by outside forces. So Mr. Obama's critical comments about the Bush administration's failure to "engage" in the so-called peace process raised a red flag in our minds.
We also thought that candidate Obama's vow to sit at the table with such international terrorist states as Iran was a dangerous signal of weakness to adversaries who have long sought legitimacy and who could be expected to take advantage of any sign that a new American administration was prepared to let bygones be bygones and paper over their crimes.
Last week in this space we suggested that whatever his vision for the future, the president-elect would be overtaken in the short run by the crippling problems now confronting this country. If he does not do something quickly about the economy, the next four years will be a shambles for his administration and a catastrophe for the country. And if he fails to address the international challenges as exemplified by the announcement from the Russians the other day that they will place missiles around Poland, America's long-term interests around the world will be severely compromised, both in terms of balance of power and, perhaps, more important, the image of the leader of the free world as someone who can be trifled with.
It is significant, we think, that sometime over this past weekend President-elect Obama's transition website, Change.gov, deleted most of what had been an ambitious agenda of some 25 specific policy items affecting a wide array of concerns - including the Middle East. It has now been drawn down to a vague one-paragraph commitment to revive the economy and deal with health care, education, social security, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and "prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, among many other domestic and foreign policy objectives."
Finally, those who detected something sinister or nefarious about candidate Obama's attitude toward Jews have to deal with his appointment of Rahm Emanuel as his White House chief of staff. That would be Rahm Emanuel, former IDF volunteer, son of an Irgun fighter, member of an Orthodox synagogue and father of children who attend Jewish day school. They also have to deal with Mr. Obama's appointment of his longtime adviser and strategist David Axelrod, originally from New York's Lower East Side, as a senior counselor in the new administration.
We may have backed his opponent, but Barack Obama has been elected the 44th president of the United States and now deserves the support of all Americans. He faces challenges of the sort that few incoming presidents have had to confront. We're still plenty skeptical, and we certainly won't hesitate to criticize him, but this is a time of new beginnings, and we wish him well.
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