By Meagan Wiseley, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

-Recovery Act

Robert Gibbs introduced Jared Bernstein and Melody Barnes to discuss the report released this morning on education-based jobs saved by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Bernstein, the Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, said that preliminary recipient data that is coming in to the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board shows 250,000 education jobs saved or created. These jobs are a subset of the 1 million jobs saved or created thus far through the act, which leaves the Economic Council on track to accomplish the stated goal of saving or creating 3.5 million jobs by later next year.

Bernstein added that the data reflects direct jobs, or jobs that are directly created and funded through spending in the Recovery Act. The Council of Economic Advisers has estimated that the Act has saved about 1 million jobs so far, and this estimate includes direct and indirect jobs.

Bernstein said this is clearly the most transparent and accountable treatment of a government program that has ever been seen before.

Barnes, the Director of the Domestic Policy Council, said the Recovery Act has made schools able to avert massive layoffs and also created jobs for educators in the pre-kindergarten, K-12 and higher education fields.

Barnes pointed out that preventing layoffs averted class size expansion, which has been a concern in the educational context.

Additionally, Barnes said reforms have been put in place to increase standards and assessments, teacher effectiveness and student progress tracking. An extended school day and school year for struggling schools has also been implemented.

When asked how the revenues to keep the new jobs in place when the federal dollars from the Recovery Act money are gone, Barnes said the administrations was very cognizant of such a scenario when developing the Recovery Act and that it was created in the context of the economy improving. Thus, states would be able to support these jobs and increases once the economy strengthens.

-Afghanistan

On the possibility of a runoff election in Afghanistan, Gibbs said that, in his assessment, General McChrystal knew the election would be taken into account. Gibbs said a sizable American force in Afghanistan must be met with a credible partner, and that, without a credible partner, no one involved can make a difference. Gibbs said he is supportive of Deputy Chairman of NATO, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry’s plan to work with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on this matter.

Gibbs refused to comment on hypothetical situations regarding a future election, but did say the administration is encouraging processes by the Afghan people to choose a candidate that is legitimate.

-Health Care Reform

On Heath Care reform, Gibbs said the administration is working to ensure choice and competition in the insurance market. He said the President has been clear on his preference for a public option to be in the final bill.

-Sudan

On Sudan, Gibbs said a comprehensive policy is needed to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Gibbs said there is pressure being put on the Sudanese government, and if steps are taken to address components of this issue by the government, there will be incentives.

-Iran

On Iran, Gibbs said that Iran has an opportunity and a responsibility to demonstrate to the world their purpose for a nuclear program. He said the U.S. obligation is to get a sizable amount of low enriched uranium out of Iran in order to make the world more secure.

-Economy


On the financial sector, and Godlman Sachs/JP Morgan executive bonuses, Gibbs said the administration does not want to be in the business of executive compensation. He said last September that the American people went through great lengths to make sure the financial system didn’t collapse. He said the banks are equally as responsible to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) says human rights advocacy has taken a backseat in Congress, at the White House, and in both parties. He says the President’s decision to not meet with the Dalai Lama is an example of such absence. (0:23)

 

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Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) says he sent President Barack Obama a letter urging the administration to refrain from granting the government of Sudan access to a Washington, D.C. lobbyist. (0:25)

 

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By Julianne LaJeunesse- University of New Mexico

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf’s (R-Va.) objection to a Sudan lobbyist presence in Washington, D.C. didn’t find much of an audience Thursday, but the Congressman moved past the small crowd, calling on President Barack Obama to reject the Sudanese government’s prospective representation at the Capitol.

“Today, I am sending a letter to President Obama urging him to make it clear, in no uncertain terms, to both the State Department and the Treasury Department’s office of Foreign Assests Control, that under his administration, the government of Khartoum, will not be granted the necessary waiver to hire a lobbyist,” Wolf said. “A modern day accused war criminal is sitting as a head of the state of government of Sudan.”

Wolf noted Sudan President Omar al-Bashir’s March 2009 arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, and said in June 2004, he was part of a delegation of Congressmen who went to Sudan, where he witnessed what he described as “the nightmare.”

When al-Bashir was issued an ICC warrant, the Sudan government said they did not recognize the ICC as a legitimate agency.

Wolf said new consideration of Sudanese representation in the nation’s capital, “would be a disgrace and must not be permitted to take place under any circumstances.”

The Sudan government has not been represented in Washington, D.C. for more than four years, largely due to what the U.S. government once said was genocide in the country’s Darfur region.

Former President Bill Clinton today kicked off the Clinton Global Initiative Plenary Session on Women. He entered to Also sprach Zarathustra, the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey. He started by giving some facts and figures about Sub-Saharan Africa and HIV, saying that getting HIV is like walking along and then suddenly having a concrete block dropped on you. He said these girls and young women are the best ambassadors because even though they have been sexually abused they refuse to live their lives as victims.

Clinton said that women do 66% of world’s work, but they produce 10% of the world’s income and own only 1% of the world’s property. 40% of the three billion people who work are women and 70% of agricultural labor is performed by women, but women lack independence. He also said that investing in women’s health could increase productivity in Africa by fifteen billion dollars per year.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a commitment to Rwanda and talked about how women have been active there. Bloomberg said he is involved in Southern Sudan and Congo, working with an organization called Women for Women. It is an attempt to get women to contribute to their countries.

President Barack Obama’s Ambassador At-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer, said that empowering women combats extremism.

Ambassador Robert Zoellick said that he is trying to help with the Adolescent Girls Initiative, an organization that hopes to work with 3,000 girls and mentor them to make sure that education is connected to a job.

Zainab Salbi talked about wars and children. She said 80% of refugees in the world are women and children. Even after rape these women succeed because they have children. They are the ones who are keeping the children going to school. The only group of people who are keeping a society going are women, and they do not have a seat at the table and they are not being heard.

Rex Tillerson from Exxon Mobil talked about technologies. He said low technologies can impact on a local level. He said they are working on what types of technologies work.

Edna Ismail was the first nurse practitioner in Somalia. She said they do not even need advanced technology. The age that a woman marries and nutrition are important to overall health. Genital cutting information is not reaching the grandmothers and people who have kept this tradition. Senegal has passed a law outlawing this, but a law does not change behavior on a village level.

Diane Sawyer asked what the biggest failure was, and Zainab Salbi asked said it was a challenge. But girls at the age of nine get cows as a dowry. She said you must be able to educate women so that there is incentive for women to be educated so they are more valuable to the family than cows.

There are a million young women in the sex trade. The United States passed one of the first laws to prevent human trafficking. It is hopeful because the business community is getting involved. One cent of every development dollar goes to girls.

Some programs make the payments directly to women, such as incentives to go to school. Must turn incentives so that the legal structure reflects the situation.

U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Major General Scott Gration says that the U.S.’s role in Sudan is to create an environment “so the those different views from the north and the south can be rationalized and problems resolved.” (0:27)

 

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“Without the U.N. and without the support to this mission for security and without the UN.’s participation in food programs and NGOs… we wouldn’t have been able to do half the stuff we’re doing,” says Special Envoy to Sudan Major General Scott Gration regarding progress made toward peace in that country. (0:45)

 

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U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Major General Scott Gration says, “We need some space on sanctions.” Gration calls on Congress to help lift sanctions that restrict access to certain ports in Sudan. These sanctions block access of trains carrying essential equipment and personnel for health care and education. They “are hindering me from being able to bring development to the south.” (0:41)

 

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By Mariko Lamb – Talk Radio News Service

Major General Scott Gration, a U.S. special envoy to Sudan, discussed a comprehensive strategy for that nation in preparation of UNAMID’s 2011 peace referendum and Sudan’s April 2010 elections.

“We want a country that is governed responsibly, justly, democratically, a country that’s at peace with itself and its neighbors, that’s economically viable, a country that works together with the United States in common interests,” Gration said in an address to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday.

In order to meet these objectives, “we need some space on sanctions,” he said, calling on Congress to help lift sanctions that restrict access to certain Sudanese ports. Such sanctions, he said, block access of trains carrying essential equipment and personnel for health care and education. They “are hindering me from being able to bring development to the south,” he added.

Gration said he believes that by establishing an environment that helps leaders in the north and south of Sudan reach twelve areas of agreement of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the U.S. can help Sudan reach a major milestone on the road to peace. “We created the environment so that the two parties, NCP and SBLN, could make the agreements,” Gration explained.

“It’s getting significantly better, but that doesn’t mean that we need to stop our efforts,” he said.

In addition to lifting sanctions, “we need more people,” Gration said. He recently requested three additional full-time employees from the U.S. State Department of State to assist him in fostering peace in Sudan.

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

The Obama Administration is working on new foreign policy initiatives to strengthen relations between the U.S. and Sudan.

The press conference organized yesterday by the Salam Sudan Foundation stressed that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005 ended a fifty year long conflict between the North and South of Sudan and that it was supposed to normalize U.S.-Sudan relations something that has not yet been done.

“We must engage more honest conversations here, in Sudan and globally about how to connect our increasingly diverse communities across differences of race, class, religion, politics and culture,” said Dr. Hashim El-Tinay, President of the SSF. He added that the international community should “let the Sudanese show the world, as the Americans have done, their commitment to justice, peace, democracy, human rights and development.”

Since the 9/11 attacks, the Sudan has cooperated with the U.S. in its fight against international terrorism yet it remains on the state sponsors of terrorism list. In 2007, economic sanctions were voted on Sudan after the Bush Administration considered the country to be accomplice in the violence occuring in the Darfur region.

“The policy gap could only be addressed if adequate knowledge is received,” said Sulayman Nyang, Professor at Howard University, adding that “the Darfurian issue should not be used against the Sudanese government.” Getting information from organizations like the SSF would help and change the debate in Washington and elsewhere.

The rest of the conference was devoted to the criticism of external groups to the conflict which are bringing more harm than help to the Sudanese people. For example, when the U.S. based Save Darfur Coalition (SDC) charged the government of Omar al-Bachir with intending to carry out genocide against the insurgents, it brought hostility and skepticism from the local population to foreign entities.

Mae King, another Professor from Howard University, observed that the U.S. is the only country to have declared that a genocide was being committed in the Darfur region of Sudan. “No one would question that there has been serious violations of human rights in Darfur, of course there have,” said King, and pointed out that the African Union as well as the United Nations have not found evidence of genocide.

For these reasons, Professor King complained that the indictment of Omar al-Bachir by the International Criminal Court was more of a political act than a legal one.