Obama Picks Steven Chu As Energy Sec

Steven Chu has been picked by U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama for Energy Secretary. Barack Obama is adding another experienced member to his growing roster of competent officials. 

Chu was appointed as the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2004 and he was only 49 when he shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for codeveloping ways to cool and trap atoms using lasers.

The Nobel winning phsyicist has long spoke out about the need to combat climate change. Here are some of Chu’s past statements on energy issues.

Steven Chu will be the man to push for the development of alternative energy. In this 2005 interview with UC Berkeley, he spoke about the possibilites of biofuel and nuclear power. The Nobel Laurette is also expected to reform existing regulatory standards which are enforced by the Department of Energy.

Now, espousing theories is one thing… changing mindsets, justifying costs and benefits, formulating theories into clear policies, are easier said than done, so I expect this Energy Secretary appointment to be among the toughest job in Obama’s administration.

In an imminent energy crisis where extracting fossil fuels becoming increasingly challenging while demand continue to spike, the policies set forth will have far reaching implications for global economies, businesses and individuals.

Terrorism In Mumbai: Taj Mahal Hotel Siege Over

What a heavy price to pay for the deadly terrorist attack in Mumbai! Landmarks were wrecked and at least 195 innocents died in the attacks on the luxury Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, Oberoi-Trident hotels, a Jewish center, railway station and restaurant.

This figure may rise further as Indian commandos combed Taj Mahal Hotel looking for survivors after routing the remaining militants to end a 60-hour siege. The militants appeared to be well trained and “very, very familiar” with the layout of the hotel, an army general said.

Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, warned of “a cost” if Pakistan did not act to stop its territory being used as a launchpad for Islamist militant attacks.

Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, has been quick to distance himself from the Mumbai terrorism. He condemned the attacks and his country’s foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, promised full cooperation, telling reporters in New Delhi: “We are not responsible for this, nor is it in our interest to get involved in something like this.”

A terrorist’s primary objective is to create fear (read more about Why Terrorism Works). Every nation should do their part to stop this fear from taking root. Unfortunately, to stamp out terrorism entirely is not easy. Terrorist organizations will continue to flourish as long as there are ignorant, unhappy, and impoverished people nursing grudges against rich and powerful nations.

The possibility of nations going to extremes to counter terrorism by turning into police states or even waging nuclear war is real. However, I hope that day never comes.

Fundamentalists who try to force their values on others are actually engaging in some form of “imperialism.” Innocent lives should never be endangered in the pursuit of any cause.

Is it too much of a hope that one day, we can live in a world where equality and justice prevail and every individual have his or her voice heard without needing a gun or bomb to get attention?

Obama Replies To Eight Year Old Girl

To anyone who doubts Barack Obama will bring an approachable style to the White House, this article will show that he is indeed a people’s President.

Eight-year-old Fil-Am Karina Encarnacion recommended a dog that president-elect Barack Obama should get for his daughters, and in return got “three bits of advice that will make your life more fulfilling.”

Read on…

Now, I find this reply by Obama very endearing. He said: “Creating change and making the world better is not always easy, and you will probably find in your life that it is more comfortable to ignore injustices that don’t affect you directly. Don’t take that comfortable road. Challenge yourself to make a difference.”

He encourages children to empathize and sees the the future in terms of generational changes and not just his term in office.

The eight year old girl suggested laws to mandate recycling and to ban unnecessary wars. Simple, beautiful and noble wishes… but so hard to implement in practice!

We may think children are so naive – they are to be seen and not heard, and they do not understand the world around them. But there are times when adults who may think they know best should just listen to children.

Sarah Palin On SNL

Sarah Palin is all the rage these days. She cannot help but get into the headlines, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. Voters are not happy with the cost ($150,000) for her wardrobe makeover.

Wearing expensive and fashionable costumes while the rest of Americans are scrimping their income is politically insensitive.  It certainly doesn’t tie in with her image of a hockey mom in a small town with all the right American values.

To add to her woes, the costume designer for “Saturday Night Live” revealed the struggle he had in dressing Sarah Palin: she wanted to wear nicer clothes than they had picked out for her, reflecting the new image she has carefully constructed on the campaign trail.

While Palin’s transformation from hockey mom to fashion plate has raised eyebrows, her “SNL” character, played by Tina Fey, has remained firmly in the red jacket. And according to Women’s Wear Daily’s Irin Carmon, “SNL” costume designer Tom Broecker said Wednesday night that dressing Palin for last Saturday’s cameo required a compromise:

Broecker said, “In speaking with her, I had to get her to understand why she needed to wear the same thing as Tina [Fey]. We had gone off and created it for the first time a month ago, a look we identified as Sarah Palin. She had moved on in her own image of herself. I said, ‘I know you’ve moved on ­ you’re wearing tighter clothes, more black ­ but this is the character of Sarah Palin.”

The compromise, he said, was Palin returning in her own clothes the second time she appeared on the show to cheer on Amy Poehler’s Palin-themed rap.

Poor Sarah Palin. She can’t accurately state what the VP does, but she is so obsessed about her SNL costume. See this interesting write-up of Sarah Palin’s psychological setup and her video.

Come Nov 5, if Palin is not elected as Vice President, I feel she can always go back to Alaska as mayor… though they will have to allocate a larger budget now that she has acquired a taste for finer things.

Even if she quits politics, she has a future doing talk shows due to her appeal. As an eye candy on TV, nobody will notice her lack of substance. By the way, her appearance on SNL grossed the highest SNL ratings in the past 14 years!

McCain Claims Victory Before Debate Occurs

I hand it to John McCain for his political maneuvering. He sparked the on-off debate (which was finally on), and then, declaring victory before the debate has actually started.

Chris Cillizza at the WaPo campaign blog broke the news when he posted a screenshot of an online ad that slipped out early declaring McCain as the winner. This strategy was used in the Kerry ‘04 campaign and worked wonders.

The trick is to put the ads live right after the debate ends, when people are busy catching summary and analysis of the debate. Problem is, this McCain ad screwed up for being several hours early and fell into the laps of the Wall Street Journal.

There are parallels to be drawn with the “Kerry Won” online campaign in 2004. A study showed that people who saw the online ad – including Democrats, Republicans and Independents – were more likely to believe that Kerry won, by statistically significant margins.

McCain camp must have been impressed by that study – online ads placed strategically are really persuasive.

I guess, in war, anything goes and the end justifies the means.  McCain deserves a medal of honor for the first strike and deception. Not that he needs the online ad anyway because he surprised me with his steady delivery of issues on economy and foreign policy.

Obama was placed on the defensive even though he has a superior hand on the floundering economy and breath-taking bailout. But he appeared too polite whereas McCain was assertive and ruffled his opponent’s feathers several times with comments like “You don’t understand,” “Naive,” “inexperienced,” etc.

This is war and Obama has to wake up to the fact. It does not have to degenerate into mud-slinging on personal traits or character but strategic thinking is necessary.

John McCain started off the week by suspending his campaign and rushing back to Washington so he can work with Congress on solving the problem. He wants Obama to do the same which will mean putting off that pesky debate they were supposed to have on Friday.

The situation was apparently so critical that that McCain called up David Letterman personally to cancel his appearance on his show so he wouldn’t waste any time tackling the problem.

That achieved a few purposes. One: throw the opposition camp into disarray by catching them offguard. Second: his opponent underestimated him in the debate, a fatal mistake, when he is actually fully geared for it and has an online ad claiming victory to boot. Third: showboating that he is putting the nation’s interest first, especially when he chose not to appear on Letterman’s program.

I have a low opinion of McCain’s sleazy act by releasing such ads in advance but to be sure, McCain has gained a slight upperhand (even if he achieved even-stevens with Obama in the first round). The debates are just starting but from the look of it, there will be more twists and turns in the Presidential election. End result could be closer than what we think.

Sarah Palin’s Email Hacked

I can understand why a lot of people are obsessed with hot babe Sarah Palin and want to know everything about her. But this is carrying things too far…

The vindictive left has engaged in unprincipled attacks on the Republican Governor of Alaska with something dubbed as the “Bimbo Doctrine” and now she has her personal e-mail account hacked. You can view her e-mails, contact lists and family photos at Gawker .

The internet and radio are abuzz with this story which raises several ethical issues concerning privacy and also law infringement. We will leave these to the experts though.

How did hackers broke into Palin’s Yahoo! account? I certainly hope she did not write her password and paste it on her computer screen. If she is so callous about internet security, can we trust her with national security? Critical information falling into the wrong hands is no joking matter.

Anyway, let’s not think negatively. It is possible that the Yahoo service was tricked into revealing Palin’s password since her personal details like birthdate and ZIP code are widely known, Or a malicious software in the form of a forged e-mail may have extracted her password unknowingly.

There are questions about why Sarah Palin chose to use a Yahoo email to conduct semi-official business. Some critics pointed out that she may be emulating Karl Rove, who used an off-site e-mail address to confound investigations of his activities in the Bush administration.

On the personal front, this is terrible for Sarah Palin, her friends and family, but politically, she has scored points again. The tide swung in her favor after Obama used a derogative term “lipstick on a pig,” and many sympathy votes poured in for John McCain and Palin.

Conversely, Barack Obama’s campaign is on the decline after being billed as a sexist. Actually, right from the start, waging personal attacks on Palin was the wrong approach. Look at the petty comment:

“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.”

Isn’t this the pot calling the kettle black? Obama tried to distance himself from such remarks but the damage has been done.

Focusing on bread and butter issues like unemployment, subprime crisis, bank failures, economic slowdown, budget deficits, financial reforms, etc (all of which will hit the Republicans where it hurts), will serve Obama well, instead of strengthening the resolve of GOP voters and feminists to side with Palin by making sexist descriptions.

Nevertheless, I have to congratulate Palin for emerging stronger with each mini scandal, either true or fabricated. Palin’s popularity is growing and beating Obama at his own game. So the lesson is, regardless of good news or bad news, just embrace all the free publicity.

Sarah Palin Trailer Trash

There is an internet frenzy over Sarah Palin after she was announced as GOP presidential candidate, John McCain’s running mate.

Since so little is known about her, it is not surprising that everybody has to start digging. Me included. Just in case you have not been following the news, Sarah Palin is the current Governor of Alaska and former contender for the Miss Alaska contest back in 1984.

Palin has wasted no time to impress voters and become a talking point. Her latest brush with fame is to be labeled as a trailer trash.

What is it about this ‘trailer trash’ thingy? It is not a nice term and certainly not the right way to address a future vice president.

Well, the entire issue sprung from a picture of Sarah Palin wearing “disrespectful” hoop earrings while accompanying John McCain to Mississippi to calm nerves from the impending Hurricane Gustav.

For that, she is viewed as low class, or … trailer trash!!

I doubt this is the sort of attention Sarah Palin craves. Could it be her beauty that made people jealous or to adopt a denigrating mindset whenever she appears?

Does it matter so much what kind of earrings Sarah Palin wears, it is her speech and actions which should concern the voters. Unless she is a celebrity and should rightfully be criticized for poor fashion sense. However, as the Vice President of the United States, I think trailer trash is too strong a word.

What do you guys think?

Sarah Palin Pregnancy Scandal?

Sarah Palin Pregnancy scandal is snowballing and it is not a good start for McCain’s presidential campaign.

There are rumors that 16-year-old Bristol Palin and not Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was the one pregnant. That makes Sarah Palin the grandmother of Trig Palin, instead of the mother. Confusing right? I took a while to grasp the relationship.

Anyway, this could turn out to be nothing more than a conspiracy to undermine the GOP ticket but certain events are too much of a coincidence and have to be explained clearly. For example,

1. Why the sudden announcement on March 6 by Sarah Palin that she was seven months pregnant?

2. Sarah Palin’s water broke a month before Trig was due, but she kept a speaking date in Texas, then flew eight hours, direct, home to Alaska.

3. Sarah Palin headed for Mat-Su Regional Medical Center (a 45 minutes drive away) instead of the more specialized Anchorage medical facility upon labor.

4. On April 18, 2008, Trig Palin, who has Down’s Syndrome, was born prematurely but Sarah Palin returned to work after just three days.

5. Bristol Palin was taken out of Anchorage High School due to “mononucleosis.” She was absent from school for more than 5 months.

Sarah Palin may have considered that her daughter, at the tender age of 16, becoming pregnant will seriously damage her carefully crafted conservative image. It will destroy any chances of her contesting for the Vice President. Or maybe, she is just displaying her motherly instinct to protect her daughter from intense scrutiny of the press.

However, Sarah Palin did not consider the possible backlash from fabricating a lie to the American people.

I do not have the full picture of this Sarah Palin pregnancy scandal but my advice is to come clean on this issue. Sometimes, honesty will be rewarded as we turn critics into sympathizers. On the other hand, telling lies force you to spin the never-ending web of deceit until you entangle yourself more deeply.

What do you guys think of Sarah Palin Pregnancy?

Obama-Bayh Bumper Stickers

Is this the real deal? The Democratic ticket for 2008 Presidential campaign comprising of Barack Obama and his running mate, Evan Bayh of Indiana.

This has got rumor mills pumping into overdrive as TV camera crews position themselves outside all possible Barack Obama vice presidential nominees’ houses, hoping to be the first to break the news to America.

The appearance of bumper sticker could be the tipoff or a hoax. Kansas City TV station KMBC, reported that a printing plant in Lenexa is hastily churning out hundreds of thousands of bumper stickers with the names Obama and Bayh ‘08.

Two senators from neighboring states, Barack Obama of Illinois and Evan Bayh of Indiana, former governor and son of former Democratic presidential candidate are gunning for the Oval Office seems to be a favored approach. Bill Clinton has done it too.

It could be speculative, of course. And campaigns have been known to feint. The printing plant is not saying anything. But many believe that an O-B ticket is for real.

One other tidbit: Sen. Hillary Clinton has released her schedule for upcoming days and it does not show her traveling with Obama, unlike what usually happens with newly-minted running mates. But that’s just a paper schedule.

Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Biden is also in the radar as a vice presidential nominee. Stay tuned for more updates.

Georgia-Russia War Erupts

America and European Union rushed to prevent war between Georgia and Russia, calling for a ceasefire as Russian tanks rolled into a rebel Georgian province.

Russia and Georgia both claim to have taken control of the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, amid fierce fighting which has reportedly left at least 1,500 people dead.

Fighting raged as Russian tanks and troops surged into South Ossetia to repel the Georgian offensive.

Such a flare-up has its roots in the early 1990s when South Ossetia broke from Georgia. It has since been a constant source of friction between Georgia and Russia, which disputes Tbilisi’s hopes of joining NATO.

South Ossetia has long sought unification with North Ossetia, which is inhabited by the same Ossetian ethnic group but ended up across the border in Russia after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Why is this war coinciding with the Olympic Games?? Share your thoughts here.