Obama May Be The Next JFK. But Which JFK? (Wet Behind The Ears)

Two days after Barak Obama's latest foreign-policy gaffe—allowing reporters to see him reading a memo from his campaign advisors on how to spin the war in Iraq—there's a new round whispering among Washington's foreign-policy watchers as to whether the Illinois senator and presidential wannabe can really be taken seriously on these subjects. Similar chatter could be heard this summer after Obama's previous blunders on Pakistan and Israel-Palestine.

This most recent episode occurred during Tuesday's Senate testimony by Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker. To be Reading a memo about how to politicize the war during their testimony showed incredibly bad taste. Regardless of what you think about their policies, Petraeus and Crocker are risking their lives every day in Iraq. While I'm not naive enough to think politics doesn't play a role in the conflict, a man who wants to be the next commander in chief should have shown more respect. As the Telegraph's Toby Harndon has noted, the screwup is enough to bring into question just how sincere Obama is about changing the culture in Washington.

Obama talks about building consensus. His performance on the foreign-policy front suggests he and his staff spend most of their time trying to find consensus among themselves. Rumor has it Obama's got a huge cadre of people advising him on foreign policy. It shows. Yesterday in Clinton County, Iowa, he released his plan (pdf) to end the war in Iraq. "The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to resolve their civil war," the plan says, "is to begin immediately to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year -now." Seven lines later, it says: "Under the Obama plan, American troops may remain in Iraq

"In another indication that Obama might not be ready for prime time, when he arrived (late) for the hearing he made the rookie error of allowing reporters to spot that he was reading this memo, subsequently reproduced by Dana Millbank in his Washington Post sketch:

Barack Obama wasted an opportunity

"To: Barack
From: Ben & Denis
Date: September 11, 2007
Re: Iraq Speech -- Differences

As you get ready for press around your speech on Iraq, we wanted to make sure you have on one piece of paper the principle [sic] differences between your speech on Iraq and the most comprehensive on Iraq given by Senator Clinton."
I'm not naïve enough to expect that electoral politics don't play a role in Senate deliberations but it was foolish to let this to be seen by the press and it showed extreme discourtesy - if not disrespect - to Petraeus and Crocker...- Toby Harnden,telegraph.co.uk

As Obama was wrapping up, he said, "That, of course, now leaves me very little time to ask questions, and that's unfortunate."

"That's true, Senator," piped up Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, the committee chairman and a rival for the Democratic nomination.

"Petraeus never got to answer Obama's 266-word question. Rushed at the end, Obama asked about benchmarks not met. Crocker said, "Senator, I described for Senator Sununu a little bit ago some of the things that I think are going to be very important as we move ahead."

"Obama tossed a softball: "Can you repeat those?

"Biden asked Crocker to summarize and racing the clock, Crocker got in 215 words before Obama's time was up.

"Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) followed Obama. He told Petraeus and Crocker, "As you have found, our hearings are more about listening to ourselves than listening to our witnesses."

"At the hearing, Obama complained about the time constraint. But it was his choice not to figure out how to ask even one thoughtful question and leave time for an answer. He chose not to show that he is interested in finding a way to engage with one of the nation's top generals." Lynn Sweet: Sweet Column, Sun Times

No one ever asks Obama about this plea for help, which he encountered when visiting his homeland. This is the question I have for Obama:

FROM THE OBAMA TOUR:

"Some Kenyans wish the attention to the place where Obama claims his roots would translate into a new dose of concern about the people who currently live there. Dorothy Owiti hails from the same part of the country as Obama's father: Siaya province, on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria. While the Senator's ancestral home is becoming a tourist attraction, Owiti's lies submerged beneath floodwaters, thanks to the operations of a US company. This January, Owiti and several of her neighbors attended the World Social Forum in Nairobi with a message for the Senator.

"I would like to tell Barack Obama that somewhere down here in his homeland, we are really suffering," she told RadioNation. "If he has us at heart, let him do something. Tell the president of Dominion Farms to stop destroying our lives in Africa."

"Dominion Farms, an affiliate of Dominion Group, based in Oklahoma, moved into Siaya in 2003 through an arrangement with the local and state authorities. After several years of negotiations, Dominion CEO Calvin Burgess leased public land from the government on a pledge to develop a high-tech fish and rice farming operation that he promised would bring jobs, reduce hunger and make Siaya and neighboring Bondo provinces the "breadbasket" of Kenya. (In the United States, Dominion builds for-profit prisons and federal buildings.)

"Until Dominion came along, the people of this part of Kenya made their living drawing water from the local Yala River. They raised goats and cows and farmed small plots of land. Widows and children harvested papyrus and sisal from the nearby swamp from which they crafted rough mats and baskets. A major habitat for endangered fish and birds, the Yala Swamp is recognized by environmentalists as one of the richest and most delicate ecosystems in East Africa. The half-million or so local residents weren't rich but they were self-sufficient, says Owiti. Now they're forced to live on the generosity of churches or on the corporation's handouts.

"Development should not bring harm to the local community," said Owiti at the World Social Forum. But that, she says, is just what has happened. In the last four years, Dominion Farms has built a dam on the Yala River, drained much of the swamp, subjected the fields to aerial spraying and drowned not only public land but, residents claim, private property without legal authority.

"Dominion offered residents compensation to leave their homes (generally 45,000 Kenyan shillings, approximately $64). Many, like Salome, a local grandmother, refused, but their land was submerged anyway. "I grew cabbages, I made mats, I planted maize and millet. Now all my fields are flooded," said Salome.

For those that remain, the company's dam blocks access to the river, the one available source of fresh water. "Now they want us to use standing water," explained Paul Obeira, another Yala Swamp resident. But with the standing water comes infection. Malaria and typhoid rates are rising. Now aerial spraying is killing livestock. "I have lost 110 goats and our women are suffering from health problems because of the spraying," added Obeira. Dominion Farms has applied for a permit to spray the pesticide DDT, which has been banned in this part of the world because of its negative health consequences.

"Begun as a counterpoint to the elite World Economic Forum, which is held each year in Davos, Switzerland, the World Social Forum casts itself as a meeting place for those on the receiving end of the kind of trade and development policy promoted at Davos. Peter Kimani, a correspondent for Kenya's Daily Nation, sees in the Yala Swamp story a classic example of problems the Social Forum tries to spotlight. "Here is a world multinational impoverishing local people in the name of development," said Kimani last week.

"Some call it recolonization by corporations. In Siaya, the managers at Dominion Farms erected a massive thirty-foot cross over their compound. According to Kimani and several Yala Swamp residents, the company threatens residents that opposition to the project constitutes opposition to God's will. Some say they've been threatened with crucifixion. "It's a classical colonial strategy to use the cross to hoodwink the people," says Cecil Agutu, organizer of a residents' support group, Friends of Yala Swamp. "At least [under colonial rule] we could see the British. Right now we have one American who flies in and out on a private plane. We can't even see him and yet he controls our resources."

SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-flanders/obamas-ruined-homeland_b_40269.html

Obama what have you done and/or have you contacted - The Dominion Group? Just an update would be welcome.

PART OF THE DOMINION GROUP: Among the largest landlords to the U.S. Government, Dominion owns and manages eleven properties to the General Services Administration in the states of Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and New Mexico. http://www.domgp.com/properties.html

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