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(297,123 posts)November 13, 2014
Obamas Unexpectedly Good Week
By John Cassidy
November 13, 2014
Obamas Unexpectedly Good Week
By John Cassidy
Before departing on a trip to Asia and Australia, Obama followed up his nomination of Lynch by issuing a forceful statement in favor of net neutrality. In an earlier post, I said that the President could have accompanied this clarion call to preserve the open, non-discriminatory spirit of the Web with a commitment to protecting the interests of ordinary Internet users, many of whom are being ripped off by quasi-monopolistic Internet-service providers. On its own terms, though, Obamas declaration was a powerful and welcome one. In addition to reaffirming a policy stance he campaigned on in 2008, the President showed that he is willing to stand up, where necessary, to the new Republican majority on Capitol Hill. In calling on the Federal Communications Commission to regulate I.S.P.s as public utilities, he surely knew that he would spark outrage among conservatives, as well as Congressional hearings, and, quite likely, a lengthy legal battle that will end up before the Supreme Court. But he went ahead anyway.
And then, after he arrived in Beijing for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, the President unveiled a much bigger surprise: an agreement with the Chinese government on confronting climate change, which garnered the praise of environmental organizations the world over. The Sierra Club called it historic, and Greenpeace, the National Resources Defense Council, and the Environmental Defense Fund also hailed the promise by the worlds two biggest CO2-emission scofflaws to reduce emissions and invest in sustainable energy. (It was left to Friends of the Earth to issue a cautionary note, warning that the measures agreed upon, even if they are fully enacted, would be insufficient to prevent global warming.)
MOre..
http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/obamas-good-week?utm_source=tny&utm_campaign=generalsocial&utm_medium=twitter&mbid=social_twitter
I read Kerry's been working behind the scenes with China for almost a year!
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