Clinton-Warren

ticket would cover

all the bases

Hillary Clinton could tap Elizabeth Warren as her running mate in 2016.

The question of whether America is ready for a female president is seldom heard these days in discussion of a Hillary Clinton run in 2016.
But, is the country ready for a ticket topped by two women? One can dream!
But a noteworthy item in The Washington Post this week raises this possibility: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is getting a rousing reception for her populist message with Democratic audiences.
Clinton is anything but not a populist. She is staunchly corporatist, an unabashed friend of Wall Street.
She is also a brilliant strategist. She might just see, as others are beginning to, her complement in Sen. Warren, whose strengths (and support) are Clinton’s weaknesses.
It is not too early to speculate that a Clinton-Warren ticket in 2016 would cover all the Democratic bases.

CHALABI SEEN AS POSSIBLE CONTENDER FOR PRIME MINISTER SLOT
One of the most villainous players in the disastrous 2003 US invasion of Iraq has made an astounding comeback.
The resurrection of Ahmad Chalabi was, ironically, capped with a front-page story and photo in The New York Times today.
It reminds us of one the main reasons Iraq finds itself in such an impossible quandary today and the role US media played in getting it there.

A REMINDER THAT HE WAS MOST WRONG ABOUT MOST THINGS
The utterly outrageous op-ed by the one most wrong about most things to do with Iraq at the most enormous cost in blood and treasure dares to call President Obama “blithely unaware.”
Dick Cheney is wrong again.
Chutzpah is not nearly strong enough to describe Cheney’s latest foray into the debacle he foisted on the world. He should shut up, already, for all time.

VANISHING MIDDLE EAST ‘NATION STATES’ POSE THREAT OF CONFLAGRATION
The world spotlight has again turned to the slow-motion implosion of what was once the Ottoman Empire.
The ‘border’ between Iraq and Syria has been effectively erased, and the region is poised on the edge of conflagration. One hundred years of nation-states are coming apart, with dangerous global implications.
The world is powerless to intervene in what has become an epochal earthquake.
There are no easy answers, and those who pose them should be regarded as fools who would plunge us all over the abyss.

POTENTIAL CHALLENGER SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN COULD UPSET DYNASTY
With all the hype about Hillary Clinton’s new book, it may seem her victory in 2016 is increasingly inevitable.
But, political memories are short. Everyone seems to have forgotten that Clinton also seemed “inevitable” in 2008 – until an upstart from Illinois proved otherwise.
If there is a remote chance that anyone can challenge the emerging Clinton lock on the 2016 presidential race, it is embodied in Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Let’s all hope she is up to the challenge.

INTERNET FIRMS MAY CHANGE TERMS OF SURVEILLANCE DEBATE
Exactly one year after the revelations from Edward Snowden began, a coalition of nine of the biggest names in tech has rejoined the battle against government surveillance.
If their open letter to the US Senate reframes at least part of the debate as a business issue, it may yet gain some serious traction.
The political classes – especially the GOP (aka the party of big business) – might find the cover they need to do more than mere window dressing.
It is time for big business to really ratchet up the pressure.

FEDERAL WATCHDOG URGES CURBS ON DATA BROKERS
In a new report, the Federal Trade Commission lays out in frightening detail how much data is being collected about all of us and the uses to which it is being and could be put.
The FTC unanimously calls for legislation to give consumers the right to learn about the existence and activities of data brokers and give them access to their data.
The recommendations should be enacted into law by Congress without delay.

OBAMA MISSES CHANCE TO BE BRAVE, WISE ON TIMETABLE
President Obama missed an opportunity to demonstrate both courage and wisdom on Afghanistan with his announcement on Tuesday.
The US has done everything it could to bring peace and stability to a region that has known little of either for a millennium.
It is a great pity the president did not announce the complete withdrawal of all US forces effective immediately. There is nothing to be gained by prolonging the agony.

HIDDEN COSTS OF UBIQUITOUS CONNECTIVITY BARED IN NEW SURVEY
Many experts responding to a Pew Research Center survey pointed to unforeseen problems raised by the looming Internet of Things, though the tone is overwhelmingly upbeat.
There is no stopping the onslaught of devices connected to the web.
But the interconnectivity of everything carries with it some not-too-obvious costs.
The Pew study should be required reading for everyone rushing to connect every device in the home for a marginal increase in convenience.

NASA REPORT ON GLACIERS ADD FUEL TO PARTISAN DIVIDE
A new report from NASA this week finds that Greenland’s ocean-feeding glaciers could increase even further the amount that sea levels will go up.
This is on top of its stunning week-old report about the collapsing Antarctic ice shelf.
Meanwhile, the political divide on the human contribution to climate change is growing as wide as the gaps in the glaciers. It is becoming a political football. The outlook is dismal, and getting darker.