Conservatives bash Obama for gay rights stand
Conservative groups and Republican White House hopeful Rick Perry wasted no time in panning the Obama administration for its move on Tuesday to stand up for gay rights abroad – the first-ever U.S. government strategy to tackle LGBT human rights abuses worldwide.
In an seven-point executive order on Tuesday, Obama told U.S. diplomats and foreign aid workers to do more to advance rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered persons abroad – a move that promotes U.S. human rights policies and speaks to a key Democratic constituency at home.
“I am deeply concerned by the violence and discrimination targeting LGBT persons around the world…No country should deny people their rights because of who they love, which is why we must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere,” Obama said in the memo, which will be published in the Federal Register. “I am directing all agencies engaged abroad to ensure that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons.”
Obama’s memo coincided with a visit to the White House by pop singer and gay icon Lady Gaga. She was scheduled to meet officials from the White House public engagement office to discuss her new “Born This Way” foundation, which focuses on fighting bullying and homophobia.
Texas governor Rick Perry took time out from his presidential campaign to decry a “war on traditional American values” and termed Obama “out of touch” and “at war with people of faith.”
“Promoting special rights for gays in foreign countries is not in America’s interests and not worth a dime of taxpayers’ money,” Perry said in a release. “Investing tax dollars promoting a lifestyle many Americas of faith find so deeply objectionable is wrong.”
Also wielding the whip was the Family Research Council, a conservative group.
One Washington day is not like another for Mr. Hu
China’s President Hu Jintao was feted with full fanfare at the White House on Wednesday, with a 21-gun salute, honor guards and a state dinner. Things might not be quite so fancy on Thursday when he goes to Capitol Hill.
There he will see Republican Speaker John Boehner in the House of Representatives, then cross the Capitol to meet Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Neither bothered to attend Wednesday’s state dinner.
Also attending the House and Senate meetings will be several other lawmakers who want a word with Hu about human rights in China, as well as China’s dealings with Iran and Chinese trade practices.
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen plans to hand Hu an entire list of complaints in the form of a letter she sent to Obama ahead of the Chinese leader’s visit.
The letter from the Republican complains of Beijing’s “military posturing,” as well as reports that China allowed the trans-shipment of North Korean missile parts to Iran via Beijing aiport. It also calls for the closure of labor camps in China, the release of political prisoners, and “unrestricted religious freedom”.
Also attending the House meeting with Hu will be the former Speaker, now Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. The Chinese media once called her a “defender of arsonists, looters and killers” after she visited the Dalai Lama and criticized Chinese “oppression” in Tibet.
Another lawmaker Hu will see is Democrat Sander Levin, one of Congress’s many critics of China’s trade practices. When he was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee last year, he pushed a bill through the House that threatened trade sanctions on China in retaliation for Beijing’s currency manipulation.
Guess who’s not coming to dinner with Hu
Usually politicians flock to a high-profile event like moths to a flame.
But we’re learning that isn’t quite the style of the new Speaker of the House.
The White House is rolling out the red carpet for China’s President Hu Jintao with one of the most formal of all events — the State Dinner.
This will be only the third hosted by President Barack Obama during the two years of his presidency — the previous ones were for the leaders of India and Mexico.
But one person who will be a no-show for the dinner in honor of the leader of the Asian economic powerhouse is Republican House Speaker John Boehner.
An aide tells our congressional correspondent Susan Cornwell that Boehner has declined an invitation to the State Dinner with the Chinese leader, but that the Speaker would see Hu on Thursday at a meeting on Capitol Hill. The aide said Boehner rarely attends state dinners.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he didn’t know why Boehner declined the invite.
American companies are demanding a chance to win contracts in China without offering any partnership agreements. But investors in the Chinese economy are now being forced to share their expertise with the Chinese people. Unless these rules are eliminated the two nations cannot be at peace.
The First Draft: Swearing-in is one thing. A White House do is another.
For those who may have missed it — and don’t laugh, there could be quite a few who did — there’s a new Supreme Court justice in town. After months of speculation, debate, a Capitol Hill grilling and finally a vote to confirm her, Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in as the first Latina and only the third woman to serve on the U.S. high court.
The problem, for public-awareness purposes, is that it happened on Saturday in an eye-blink ceremony in a conference room at the Supreme Court building. That was a departure from decades of tradition that has dictated a White House oath-taking for new justices, reportedly on President Barack Obama’s say-so.
That doesn’t mean Sotomayor won’t get her time at the White House. That happens this morning in an East Room reception hosted by the president and first lady Michelle Obama.
It’s a busy day for official honors at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This afternoon, there will be a ceremony to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Senator Ted Kennedy, human rights leader Bishop Desmond Tutu, tennis great Billie Jean King and actor and activist Sidney Poitier, among others. See the complete list here.
The most controversial recipient is probably Mary Robinson, the former U.N. high commissioner for human rights and an organizer of an anti-racism conference in South Africa in 2001. The U.S. delegation walked out of that conference and pro-Israel groups and others have criticised its concluding document as anti-Semitic and equating Zionism with racism. John Bolton, Washington’s U.N. representative during the Bush administration, said flatly in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that Robinson should not receive the award.
Could there be protests in this most decorous of locations, at what is normally — forgive our jaded sensibilities — a heart-warming but often dull ceremony? Stay tuned.
Obama handles China delicately
It’s too early to tell whether President Barack Obama’s new approach to China will be more successful than his predecessor’s. But this week’s high-level dialogue in Washington underlined how the balance of power is shifting.
The U.S. side, determined to be more respectful and less confrontational, tiptoed around the sensitive issue of China’s currency, avoiding any public appeal for an upwards revaluation in the yuan.
There was a passing reference to the rights of China’s ethnic and religious minorities, but no sign the other side would take any more notice of foreign interference in its internal affairs than it has in the past.
Not was there any evidence the Chinese and Americans were any closer on issues from climate change to how to deal with countries like North Korea and Sudan.
The Chinese, though, seemed less circumspect, more confident even in their public statements. Washington, they argued, should rein in its budget deficit and refrain from flooding the world with dollars.
They are, after all, holding more than $800 billion in U.S. Treasury debt, and don’t want to see the value of those investments fall.
And when you have such a big customer, you better listen to them, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out this morning.
Obama,s “why can,t we all be friends”policy seems not to be getting any traction.the much awaited”change” that was going to bring in “an new era cooperation”is not working.it was expected to follow automatically after Obama apologized for Americas past deeds.the only moderate success obama has had is with hugo chaves,and that is if he tries to sell his book.but relationships with other countries are now worse than when bush was in office!hillary has offended north korea,biden has infuriated russia,and protesters are marching in israel against obama.china has told obama to be careful with his spending and india has told him to keep his nose out of their energy policy.this is not what we were told to expect!
Resident Obama is using the Global Gay community as a TOOL for re-election after three years in office. It’s the same thing Debbie Wasserman-Schultz does to the Wilton Manors Gay community that we have to “put-up” with as well.