Obama pledges "equal partnership" with Latin America, a "new beginning" with Cuba

I recently wrote a graduate paper on U.S. relations with Latin America under the Bush administration. While they were, of course, poor, I honestly couldn't say that the Bush administration had any worse attitude with our southern neighbors than previous ones - it only seemed worse because populist leaders such as Hugo Chavez came to power and became vocal about their discontent. I figured the Obama administration would curb some of the worst policies (as we saw with the lifting of the family travel restrictions on Cuba), but even I questioned whether we'd see radical change given the nation's history. But President Obama does indeed seem to be seeking a new era of relations if his comments at the Americas summit are any indication:

Venturing into an unfamiliar region of the world, President Barack Obama made a splash on a stage of leaders from across the Americas on Friday and promised to offer them a new style of U.S. politics: more pragmatism, less arrogance.

"We have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms," the president told the heads of every democratic government across the Western Hemisphere.

"But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership," Obama said. "There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations."

Such an idea — that the United States is equal, despite being keeper of the world's most powerful military and leader of an economy that helps steer the globe — was telling.

The language was more striking on Cuba:

But he made a point of referring to Cuba, whose government has been at ideological odds with Washington for half a century following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.

"The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba. I know there is a longer journey that must be traveled in overcoming decades of mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take toward a new day," Obama said in his address.

"Over the past two years, I have indicated -- and I repeat today -- that I am prepared to have my administration engage with the Cuban government on a wide range of issues -- from human rights, free speech and democratic reform to drugs, migration and economic issues," he added.

Though it is plainly obvious that our Cuba policy has failed, it is still a shock to see a U.S. President finally admit it and attempt to do something different. We will see how successful it is, but it's definitely a good start.

Thursday Links

1. Honestly, I wouldn't have surprised if Obama backed off his desire to enact immigration reform. I'm not willing to give odds on what I think the chances are of some meaningful legislation actually getting passed.

2. Middle East: Roger Cohen says Netanyahu is "crying wolf" over claims that Iran will obtain and use a nuclear weapon against Israel, and the Obama administration announces in a dramatic shift that they will join nuclear talks with Iran. Israel's new Foreign Minister rejects the 2007 Annapolis agreement, but Obama signals that the U.S. expects Israel to comply with the agreement and, according to Haaretz, is preparing his administration for a confrontation with Israel over Palestine.

3. Eric Holder begins a "revamp" of the Public Integrity Unit at the DOJ.

4. An organization of Cuban exiles signals they are willing to accept broad changes in American's policies towards Cuba.

5. Nicholas Kristof says that we've reached a turning point when it comes to animal rights.

6. Thanks to the recession, more states are considering raising taxes. Naturally, they will do so quietly.

7. A Texas Republican says Asian-Americans should change to names that are "easier for Americans to deal with." Because of course that makes more sense than just not enacting ridiculous and unnecessary voter ID legislation.

8. Co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons Dave Arneson has died. As you may recall, Gary Gygax passed away this time last year. The world of role-playing owes both its existence and popularity mostly to these two men.

9. Idiots shoot and kill a dog belonging to a retired Navy SEAL living in the Houston area, who nearly kills them in return. Both his name and book sounded familiar so I looked him up. Sure enough, I remember him from this NPR story from 2007 recounting a battle in Afghanistan in which he was the only survivor. I can tell you that had he shot one or more of those guys, no jury in Texas would've convicted him.

More Cuba policy changes on the way?

Congress relaxed some embargo rules in the omnibus spending bill they passed a few weeks back and now the Obama administration relaxing rules on family travel and remittances to Cuba. A delegation of U.S. lawmakers has also gone to the island to talk about normalizing relations. For now, it looks as if the Congress may be slightly ahead of the administration on abandoning are long-standing policies, but things are at least moving in the right direction.

Morning Links

1. Apparently all it takes to get published is 1) a title that makes an over-the-top claim 2) a thesis based on the most conventional of wisdom and the most superficial analysis of modern affairs and 3) a track record of publishing similar books.

2. Iran offers to help in Afghanistan, pledging reconstruction aid and assistance in stopping the drug trade.

3. Our ridiculous policies towards Cuba are finally being questioned on the Hill.

4. Samueal Johnson says that America cannot recover until the oligarchy that controls the financial sector is broken.

5. Are Taliban militants in Pakistan extending their reach beyond the tribal areas?

6. Iraq: another suicide bombing in Mosul. Iraqis fear that the present "peace" is merely the eye of the storm, and some are not prepared to lay their weapons down.

7. Israel closes its investigation into claims of atrocities in Gaza.

Legislative Update VI

The House of Representatives passed a couple of bills this week. First, the chamber passed a bill would prohibit the interstate shipment of pet monkeys and other primates. A similar measure passed the House last year, but Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., raised procedural hurdles to block it in the Senate. House also passed a $410 spending bill allow smooth functioning of the government through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. Bush administration restrictions on travel to Cuba were loosened in the legislation, to permit more frequent visits and expand the list of family members permitted to make trips to see relatives on the Communist nation-island.

The Senate finally got around to confirming Hilda Solis as the next Secretary of Labor, after Republicans had delayed the inevitable for weeks. Better yet, the Senate passed legislation that would give the D.C. Representative a vote in the House (right now, they can only vote on amendments, but not the final bill). The bill would increase the size of the House's membership to 247 because it would also add another seat for solid-red Utah (however, this could be reallocated in 2012 based on the census). The House itself should vote next week. Attached to the legislation was an amendment that would also repeal the District's ban on semiautomatic weapons, bar the city's registration requirements for most guns and drop criminal penalties for possessing an unregistered firearm, so this may cause an issue.

Lastly, a Senate bill has been re-introduced that would federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. President Bush previously vetoed the legislation and President Obama promised to overturn the limitations on the research Bush has set by executive order. However, the president and Democrats want a bill passed to prevent a future administration from simply changing the policy again.

Small But Significant Changes

First, the Obama administration has stated that they are sending $900 million to Gaza to help in the rebuilding effort. This is not the first time that an administration has slotted aid for the Palestinians, but it's an unprecedented amount as far as I can tell. The mere fact that we might help Palestinians rebuild their flattened homes is irritating enough to the Israeli hawks, but apparently Secretary Clinton is also not afraid to call out the Israelis over the speed with which the aid is being distributed (via Glenn Greenwald):

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has relayed messages to Israel in the past week expressing anger at obstacles Israel is placing to the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. A leading political source in Jerusalem noted that senior Clinton aides have made it clear that the matter will be central to Clinton's planned visit to Israel next Tuesday.

Ahead of Clinton's visit, special U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is expected to issue a sharply worded protest on the same matter when he arrives here Thursday.

"Israel is not making enough effort to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza," senior U.S. officials told Israeli counterparts last week, and reiterated Washington's view by saying that "the U.S. expects Israel to meet its commitments on this matter."

What they're referring to our restrictions the Israelis have placed on the number of shipments of aid being allowed into Gaza on a daily basis. The Israelis say they're doing the best they can, but anecdotes like these make it appear that they are as cavalier about humanitarian aid as they were about avoiding civilian casualties during the Gaza offensive:

...an incident occured last week at a crossing into the Gaza Strip that gave a very different impression to a senior observer. When Senator John Kerry visited the Strip, he learned that many trucks loaded with pasta were not permitted in. When the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee inquired as to the reason for the delay, he was told by United Nations aid officials that "Israel does not define pasta as part of humanitarian aid - only rice shipments."

Kerry asked Barak about the logic behind this restriction, and only after the senior U.S. official's intervention did the defense minister allow the pasta into the Strip. The U.S. senator updated colleagues at the Senate and other senior officials in Washington of the details of his visit.

Obviously, taking the Israelis to task over the pace at which aid is being delivered to Gaza is not the same as condemning the offensive in Gaza, but it's certainly light years beyond anything the Bush administration would've done.

Also, a change in the long-standing embargo of Cuba maybe be coming:

Monday's call by Sen. Richard Lugar for a major re-assessment of Washington's nearly half-century effort to isolate Cuba increases the likelihood that U.S. President Barack Obama will make substantial changes in policy toward Havana beyond those he promised during his election campaign, according to experts here.

"What's significant is that this is the senior statesman for foreign policy in the Republican Party, someone who doesn't have a long track record of advocating for changes in Cuba policy, who has decided to come out and really put his stamp on this issue by saying that the U.S. embargo doesn't favour our national interest," said Daniel Erickson, a Cuba specialist at the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank here.

"The fact is that Lugar has pre-empted Obama with his own proposals for changing the policy and in so doing creates a context that is much more favourable to changing the policy beyond the narrow of issue of lifting restrictions on Cuban-American travel and remittances" to the island, added Erickson, author of 'The Cuba Wars,' a recently published book on U.S.-Cuban relations.

"What you are seeing is momentum-building," agreed Geoff Thale, a Cuba specialist at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a human rights group that has long opposed the trade embargo. "With the policy already under review by the administration, Lugar is creating political space for Obama to take stronger action than he otherwise might."

A tougher line on Israel, a lessening of the embargo of Cuba? It's almost too much to hope for.

U.S. Men to Cuba

Having eked out a 1-0 win in a typically violent game in Gautemala, the U.S. Men's National soccer team now travels to Havana, Cuba for the first time since 1947 to take on the Cuban national team in World Cup Qualifying. Thanks to hostility between the U.S. and Cuba no American fans will be on hand for the game, but American soccer journalists are and one of them has his thoughts on Cuba here.

What's Wrong with Hillary

I don't know why I'm even mildly surprised, but Hillary quite publicly refuses to repudiate the use of torture by the U.S. government:

Clinton was similarly vague about how she would handle special interrogation methods used by the CIA. She said that while she does not condone torture, so much has been kept secret that she would not know unless elected what other extreme measures interrogators are using, and therefore could not say whether she would change or continue existing policies.

"It is not clear yet exactly what this administration is or isn't doing. We're getting all kinds of mixed messages," Clinton said. "I don't think we'll know the truth until we have a new president. I think [until] you can get in there and actually bore into what's been going on, you're not going to know."

What? "Mixed messages"? I'm sorry, but we know quite clearly that the Bush administration has authorized the use of brutal techniques like water-boarding and stress positions, has refused to renounce such techniques, has authored secret legal opinions justifying them, and has only reluctantly backed away from such techniques after losing cases before the Supreme Court. If you are genuinely against torture, you would simply come out and say "I do not support the use of torture techniques such as water-boarding, stress positions" etc., etc. What are the reasons you wouldn't come out and say something like that? Either because you are genuinely not really against torture all that much, or because you don't want to say you're against torture because that's not "tough." Which is worse? I don't know, but Kevin Drum detests this sort of weasily spinning:

Politics is politics. Spin and ambiguity are part of the game. But if you can't even take a full-throated, non-weasely position against torture and abuse of prisoners in American custody, what the hell good are you?

Indeed. Who of us desires to vote a Democrat into the White House, only to find that torture continues in our name? Not I.

I like Hillary. I really do. I think she's tough, strong, intelligent and would be a hell of a President. But this sort of thing is really starting to chap my hide. I am seriously beginning to question whether or not Hillary lines up with my ideas on American foreign policy and national security enough for me to be comfortable with her as President. I hardly need to say anything about her infamous vote for the Iraq war, a vote that haunts her on the campaign trail, a vote she has yet to adequately explain. Even now she continues to hedge on Iraq, as if she's preserving some sort of maneuvering room that will permit her to keep us in the conflict longer than most Americans desire (though to be fair, all the major candidates seem to be having this problem.) Then there's her vote on the recent Iran resolution, followed shortly by her support of a proposal that would block funding of a military strike on Iran, a position which leaves people like me wondering exactly how much leeway Hillary thinks she's giving the Bush administration to act on Iran and to what purpose. It doesn't help that her list of advisers includes hawks suck as Michael O'Hanlon, defender of the surge.

Then there's the nuclear weapons kerfuffle from earlier this year, where Obama made the egregious mistake of saying he wouldn't unilaterally nuke thousands of innocent Pakistanis to kill a dozen or so terrorists, and Clinton called him out for his unseriousness in that regard, and for his willingness to waste time talking to heads of State we disagree with.

Then there's her approach to Cuba, which appears to be to continue the failed embargo approach of the last fifty years.

In contrast to that we have Barack Obama, who unabashedly and clearly repudiates the use of torture, spoke out against the war in Iraq, refused to back the Iran resolution, who thinks we should talk to our enemies, who believes it's silly to admit that we won't nuke peaceful citizens just to get to terrorists, who in fact believes we should ban nuclear weapons, who supports rapprochement with Cuba, and who employs a noted human rights activist as his most prominent foreign policy adviser.

Don't get me wrong. I don't support or oppose a candidate based solely on my foreign policy beliefs. But we are at a critical juncture in the history of our Nation, where our relationships with other powers can either be repaired and restored or where they can be broken beyond repair, where we can engage in war until it saps us of our military and economic might or we can begin the difficult road to peace and diplomacy, and where we can break with the ineffectual policies of the past to engage in a new era of world leadership. At this juncture, I think it's becoming clearer who is best suited to do all of these things, and it's not Hillary Clinton.

UPDATE: Dammit! The Hillary campaign ruins my anti-Hillary screed by revealing that Hillary was not quoted accurately by the Washington Post (check the link to Kevin Drum above for an update.) Her entire quote reveals about as unequivocal a stand against torture as you can ask for and I'm not going to over-interpret her words like Andrew Sullivan in an effort to sustain my original point (and Sullivan has his own weird problems with the Clintons anyway.) But I stand by the rest of my post, and her clear statement against torture isn't enough to change my mind about any of the rest of her foreign policy positions.

Lift the Embargo

Via the Washington Note, Presidential Candidate and Senator Chris Dodd speaks some sense on the the Cuban embargo:

I want to see the peaceful transition to democracy occur on the Island of Cuba in my life time.

That isn't going to happen if we continue the misguided policies of the last forty-six years. We must open the flood gates to contacts with the Cuban people. We must remove restrictions on the ability of Cuban Americans to provide financial assistance to their loved ones. Even small sums of money in the hands of ordinary Cuban families can serve as catalysts for private investment to gain a foothold in Cuba.

It is simply un-American to bar American citizens from traveling to foreign countries. In fact, Americans are currently free to travel to both Iran and North Korea, two countries which pose far more serious threats to American national security than the government of Cuba.

Unfortunately since Dodd has virtually no chance of winning the nomination, he can afford to alienate the millions of Floridian Cubans who have hijacked our foreign policy towards Cuba...unlike another prominent Democratic candidate who seems content to maintain the status quo.

Legislative Update III

(Xanthippas requested more of this and I'm happy to oblige!)

Bad news first: Rep. Rahm Emanuel's amendment to a 2008 spending bill for the Treasury Department and executive branch agencies to eliminate the vice president's executive office budget (in response to Cheney's assertion that his office didn't need to comply with national security disclosure rules required of other executive branch agencies because he's not part of the executive branch, despite prior claims of executive privilege), was defeated 217-209. Shame on the conservative Democrats that joined Republicans and gave them a bare majority. But the bill faces a veto threat anyway because Democrats lifted restrictions barring the use of federal funds to put in place the District of Columbia's domestic partnership law. Hopefully, the Senate will still try and attach the same measure to their version of the bill.

The House did, however, pass an amendment which would forbid the White House from expending any funds in implementing President Bush's recent changes to the regulatory process. E.O. 13422 amended E.O. 12866 which governs the White House regulatory review process and required federal officials to show that private companies, people or institutions failed to address a problem before agencies can write regulations to tackle it. It also gives political appointees greater authority over how the regulations are written. The House measure “stops this president or any president from seizing the power to rewrite almost every law that Congress passes, laws that protect public health, the environment, safety, civil rights, privacy and on and on,” said Rep. Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat who sponsored the bill.

Meanwhile, Rep. Nick Rahall, said that the House Natural Resources Committee panel will hold a hearing into the role Cheney may have played in the 2002 deaths of about 70,000 salmon near the California-Oregon border. Rahall, chairman of that committee, said Cheney's part in developing a 10-year water plan for the Klamath River, reported Wednesday by The Washington Post (in the Cheney series we posted about), resulted in the largest adult salmon kill in the history of the West.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday issued subpoenas to the offices of President Bush, Cheney and others demanding documents on the warrantless wiretapping program, but they are refusing to comply. Ironically, Cheney is again claiming executive privilege.

Also, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday reduced Bush' $3 billion request for the Millennium Challenge Corporation to $1.2 billion in order to boost Bush's $4.2 billion request for the foreign aid bill's global HIV/AIDS account by $940 million. Lawmakers are adding $590 million to the Bush administration's request for a global fund to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. But the Senate's foreign aid bill, like the House's, faces a veto because it would ease restrictions on overseas groups that perform or promote abortion by allowing them to receive U.S.-donated contraceptives.

Finally, in another move that faces a veto, the House today amended the fiscal 2008 Financial Services and General Government spending measure to relax restrictions on agricultural trade with Cuba. The White House, of course, rejects any attempts to normalize relations with Cuba in any form.

Legislative Update II

The House voted 355-69 on Thursday to adopt a proposal, as part of a $34.2 billion bill that funds State Department operations and foreign aid, to revive the Iraq Study Group.

The House also voted 223-201 to reverse a ban on contraception aid to groups overseas that offer abortions in an effort to overturn Bush's ban via executive order. Bush will veto the measure and conservatives in the House will uphold it.

Lawmakers from both parties proposed opening up agriculture exports to Cuba and ending travel restrictions, putting them at odds with a White House adamantly opposed to easing a half-century-old embargo.

On the Senate side, progress on the energy bill was a mixed bag. The Senate voted to increase fuel economy standards to 35 miles per gallon for cars and SUVs, the first significant boost demanded of automakers in nearly 20 years. The agreement was announced at a news conference and then quickly adopted by the Senate without a roll call vote. However, the chamber refused to limit debate on a $32.1 billion tax package proposed by the Finance Committee that would roll back tax cuts for oil and gas companies in favor of renewable energy sources, like the bill the House passed earlier in the year. However, there is still hope for the bill to come back and be passed. Democrats got enough Republican support they were only three votes down from the 60 votes needed. Sen. Boxer was out of town, and Sen. Reid only voted against it as a procedural move so he can bring it back up later when potentially Sen. Johnson will be back in the Senate after having recovered from his stroke earlier in the year. Thus, they would have the three votes needed for passage.

The Senate Judiciary Committee continued to ramp up its pressure on the White House by authorizing Chairman Patrick Leahy to subpoena documents relating to the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. Republican Sens. Hatch, Grassley, and ranking member Specter joined all Democrats on the panel in subpoenaing both the Executive Office of the President and the Department of Justice for documents relating to the authorization of and legal justification for the wiretapping program.

UPDATE:

According to the AP, the Senate passed an energy bill late Thursday that includes an increase in automobile fuel economy, new laws against energy price-gouging and a requirement for huge increases in the production of ethanol.

"Shortly before midnight, senators voted 62-32 to cut off debate, and followed by passing the bill 65-27. The measure now awaits action by the House, which is expected to take it up next week. But attempts to combine the two bills and send legislation to President Bush probably won't be possible until later this year."

UPDATE II:

On Friday, the House voted to prohibit any aid to Saudi Arabia as lawmakers "accused the close ally of religious intolerance and bankrolling terrorist organizations," according to the AP. The prohibition was attached to a foreign aid funding bill for next year that has not yet been debated by the Senate. It also faces a veto threat from the White House.