Obama, Clinton go after McCain in economic addresses

(CNN) — Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on Thursday laid out their proposals to reinvigorate the economy as they attacked Sen. John McCain’s plan as ineffective.

Clinton said McCain’s plan does virtually nothing to ease the credit crisis or the housing crisis.

He’d rather ignore the credit crisis and the mortgage crisis — or blame middle-class families instead of offering solutions on their behalf, Clinton said during campaigning in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Speaking from New York, Obama said Thursday the United States must address the immediate crisis in the housing market in order to recharge the economy.

John McCain recently announced his own plan, and it amounts to little more than watching this crisis happen. While this is consistent with Sen. McCain’s determination to run for George Bush’s third term, it won’t help families who are suffering, and it won’t help lift our economy out of recession, Obama said.

McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, outlined his plan to address the housing situation earlier this week.

His campaign released a statement Thursday calling the housing crisis a complex problem that deserves a careful, balanced approach that helps the homeowners in trouble, not big banks and speculators that acted irresponsibly.

I believe the role of government is to help the truly needy, prevent systemic economic risk, and enact reforms that prevent the kind of crisis we are currently experiencing from ever happening again. Those reforms should focus on improving transparency and accountability in our capital markets — both of which were lacking in the lead-up to the current situation.

However, what is not necessary is a multibillion dollar bailout for big banks and speculators, as Sens. Clinton and Obama have proposed. There is a tendency for liberals to seek big government programs that sock it to American taxpayers while failing to solve the very real problems we face, the statement said.

Obama said the government should play a role in improving Americans’ well-being by providing stable macroeconomic and financial conditions for sustained growth; by demanding transparency; and by ensuring fair competition in the marketplace. Watch Obama explain his plan for the economy

He called for immediate relief for those affected by the housing crisis, revamping the regulatory framework and boosting the economy with an additional $30 billion stimulus package.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg — whom many had speculated was considering an independent run for the White House — introduced Obama, but reiterated that he had not endorsed a candidate for president.

Obama also recognized Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, and former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman William Donaldson.

Obama said the details of regulatory overhaul should be developed through sound analysis and public debate, and detailed six guiding principles.

Institutions that borrow from the government must be subject to federal oversight and supervision.

Regulations for those institutions need to be updated

The framework for overlapping and competing regulatory agencies needs to be streamlined

Institutions need to be regulated for what they do, not what they are

A crackdown on trading activity that manipulates the markets is necessary

A process that identifies systemic risks to the financial system is needed

Clinton’s campaign accused Obama of copying her plan, calling for an additional stimulus package one week after Clinton did.

If Sen. Obama has to copy policy ideas when he’s a candidate on the campaign trail, how is he going to solve people’s problems if he’s president? When it comes to fixing the economy, we need leadership, not followership, Clinton policy director Neera Tanden said.

Obama’s senior economic adviser Daniel Tarullo said he thinks Obama has laid out a plan for financial regulation that is more comprehensive than any other candidate.

In Clinton’s address Thursday, she said the Bush economy is like a trap door.

Too many people are one pink slip away, one missed mortgage payment away, one medical diagnosis away from falling through and losing everything, she said.

Clinton proposed a five-year, $12.5 billion job training program.

We may be competing in a new global economy, but our policies to equip American workers for the 21st century are stuck back in the 20th century, she said.

While we have been rightly focused on trying to help people who are out of work, there’s been too little thought and effort to help people gain new skills while they still have their existing jobs.

Clinton highlighted state and local initiatives that work and stressed her belief that the federal government needs to be a stronger partner with local governments.

In McCain’s address on Tuesday, he blamed rampant speculation and complacent lenders for the mortgage crisis. Watch McCain share his thoughts on the housing crisis

Speaking in Santa Ana, California, he said: Lenders ended up violating the basic rule of banking: Don’t lend people money who can’t pay it back.

Vowing not to play election-year politics, McCain called for more transparency in lending, and higher capital reserves for lenders.

Clinton said reluctance to bail out banks and borrowers in trouble sounded like Herbert Hoover, the Republican president in office at the start of the Great Depression.

Earlier this week, a Republican committee spokesman blasted the economic plans of both Democrats.

Both Barack Obama and Sen. Clinton’s plans to increase taxes would hurt hardworking families and take money out of their pockets to place it in the hands of government bureaucrats, Danny Diaz said.

The economic slowdown caused by the credit crunch has become a top concern for voters. Consumer confidence in March dropped to its lowest level in five years, according to The Conference Board.
Obama, Clinton go after McCain in economic addresses – found here.

Monks protest upstages China’s PR tour

(CNN) — China’s carefully managed international media tour of Tibet’s capital ran into a public-relations roadblock Thursday — a protest by screaming Buddhist monks at a holy shrine.

Beijing invited about two dozen international journalists to tour Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, to show them the city is calm after recent anti-China protests. The tour marked the first time foreign reporters had been allowed into Tibet since the unrest began two weeks ago.

But the protest by about 30 monks at the sacred Jokhang Temple showed that Lhasa is anything but calm.

Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free! yelled one young Buddhist monk, according to The Associated Press, one of the news organizations allowed on the tour.

CNN was not allowed on the tour. Angry Chinese bloggers have accused CNN and several other Western news organizations of being unfair in covering the pro-independence protests in Tibet, which is controlled by China.

Chinese officials said the bloggers’ criticism reflects wider public opinion.

You in the media should all reflect on this public outcry, said Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. It is a reaction by all Chinese people against irresponsible and unethical reporting.

Other news organizations allowed on China’s tour of Tibet included The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the Financial Times.

In its reporting of the temple incident, China’s official news agency, Xinhua, said the monks stormed into a briefing by a temple administrator to cause chaos. Chinese officials closed off the temple after the monks’ protest.

China has drawn international criticism because of its crackdown in Tibet. Pro-independence protests in Lhasa began March 10 and were peaceful at first. But then violence erupted, with shops burned and stores looted.

Beijing has blamed followers of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, for the violence. The Dalai Lama has criticized the violence and called for dialogue with China.

The protests — which began on the 49th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising — have threatened to overshadow Beijing’s hosting of the Summer Olympic Games in August.

Other protests have been held in Dharmsala, India — where the Tibetans have a government-in-exile, Nepal, and in Greece, where protesters disrupted the lighting of the Olympic flame ceremony.

President Bush called Chinese President Hu Jintao Wednesday to express his concern about China’s crackdown on protesters in Tibet, the White House said.

Protesters say about 140 of their number have died in the violence, while China says about two dozen people have been killed.
Monks protest upstages China’s PR tour – found here.

France and Britain discuss joint nuclear plan

LONDON, England (CNN) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British leader Gordon Brown were meeting Thursday to discuss plans for a joint nuclear power program to export technology to non-nuclear states across the world.

The meeting at Downing Street was the main focus of the second day of a two-day state visit by the French leader to Britain.

As part of the talks, the two leaders were also expected to discuss plans to replace Britain’s raft of ageing nuclear power plants.

France produces 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, compared with 20 percent in Britain.

According to CNN’s European Political Editor Robin Oakley, co-operation on a nuclear deal will be easy for France but could prove more problematic for Britain, where the energy source remains unpopular with the public. Read how the Sarkozys charmed Britain Brown plans to host a conference later this year for non-nuclear countries who aim to develop civilian atomic power programs.

London would extend an invitation to Iran, if it meets its international obligations to cease uranium enrichment, The Associated Press reported the prime minister’s office as saying.

Sarkozy and his glamorous wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy arrived at the British leader’s official residence late morning local time.

The previous day, the French first lady had threatenend to overshadow her husband in a succession of demure Christian Dior costumes as the couple attended a royal dinner given in their honor by the queen.

Earlier in the day, Sarkozy won a standing ovation from British lawmakers following a fiery speech calling not just for entente cordiale but for a new fraternite or brotherhood between the two nations.

Sarkozy told parliament that his government was willing to commit more troops to the war in Afghanistan, calling the fight there crucial to the NATO alliance.

We cannot afford to lose Afghanistan, he said. We cannot afford to see the Taliban and al Qaeda returning to Kabul. Whatever the cost, however difficult the victory, we cannot afford it. We must win.

U.S. and NATO forces are battling a resurgent Taliban and its al Qaeda allies in Afghanistan nearly seven years after al Qaeda’s 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

The United States has pushed for a greater allied combat presence in the country, and Afghanistan is expected to top the agenda when NATO heads of state gather in Romania in early April.

Afghanistan is one of the issues Sarkozy is expected to be discussing with Brown Thursday.
France and Britain discuss joint nuclear plan – found here.

China lets foreign journalists visit Tibet

LHASA, China (AP) — China has announced the surrender of hundreds of people over anti-government riots among Tibetans, and also allowed the first group of foreign journalists to visit the regional capital since the violence began.

The moves appear calculated to bolster government claims that authorities are in control of the situation, and that the protests that began peacefully were acts of destruction and murder.

The protests embarrassed and frustrated the government ahead of this summer’s Beijing Olympics, leading it to flood Tibet with troops and ban foreign journalists.

The protests took a violent turn on March 14, when rioters set hundreds of fires in Lhasa and attacked ethnic Chinese.

State-run media announced on Wednesday that more than 600 people had turned themselves in to police in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, and in Sichuan province, where unrest also broke out.

Police also published a list of 53 people wanted in connection with the riots, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. At least 29 people have been formally arrested, but it was not clear if they were among the 53 on the wanted list.

It was unclear how much freedom to report the small group of foreign journalists, among them an Associated Press reporter, would have during the government-arranged two-day trip.

The first several hours of the visit gave the group only a limited glimpse of Lhasa. The bus drive from the airport into the Tibetan capital was purposely slow, taking about 90 minutes to go 40 miles despite repeated pleas from the reporters to speed up.

The bus passed three checkpoints on the way, all manned by police in regular uniforms. Single police officers also were stationed at almost every cross street on the road to Lhasa.

The bus made a stop close to one of the checkpoints, and when several reporters walked back to see, government minders hurried along as well.

About five uniformed officers were stopping cars. One officer, Cun Luobu, said the checkpoint was set up March 14, but added they were checking only for people not wearing seat belts, for violating traffic rules and for having fake license plates.

Although Chinese state television has been repeatedly showing scenes of damage from the riots there was little visible destruction in the areas of Lhasa where reporters were taken. See protesters in India burn Chinese goods.

Armed police in camouflage uniforms were stationed at several places that appeared to be government offices. Machine guns were strapped across their chests, the highest state of readiness.

The reporters were taken to Potala Square, below the Potala Palace — the traditional seat of Tibetan rulers, which reopened Wednesday for the first time since March 14.

A reporter from Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao newspaper managed to talk to two Tibetans on the square who said security was tight and that they were often stopped for identification checks, but that they were allowed to move around the city.

The reporters were then taken a few blocks away where many shops had been burned out during the rioting.

Some of the stores that had not been damaged had white ceremonial scarves hanging from them. During the rioting, many Tibetans did that to let protesters know not to stone or burn the buildings because they belonged to Tibetans.

The journalists also were taken down Qingnian Road, another hard-hit street. At the end of the street was a two-story medical clinic that had been burned out.

A red banner hanging from a newly built arch on the road had Construct a Harmonious Society in gold Chinese writing. Harmonious society is a catch-phrase of President Hu Jintao to show the government’s efforts to deal with social unrest created by an increasing gap between an urban middle class and the poor, largely rural masses.

The police presence in the parts of the city where reporters were taken was not noticeably heavy. In the Old City, members of the People’s Armed Police were checking identification, but allowing people to pass by.

The reporters were not prevented from leaving their hotel Wednesday night, but were encouraged not to go out by their government handlers.

Don’t go out without informing us. It is for your own safety, said Guo Weiming of the Information Office of the State Council, China’s Cabinet.

Asked to comment on the media trip, the Dalai Lama called it a first step and said he hoped it would take place with complete freedom. Then you can access the real situation.

The uprising was the broadest and most sustained against Chinese rule in almost two decades. Thousands of troops and police have been deployed to contain the unrest. Watch Tibetans being arrested in Nepal.

The government says at least 22 people have died in Lhasa; Tibetan rights groups say nearly 140 Tibetans were killed, including 19 in Gansu province.

So far, the U.S., Britain and Germany all have condemned China for its response to the protests, but stopped short of threatening to boycott the games or the August 8 opening ceremony.

On Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry lashed out at a British newspaper editorial comparing the Beijing Olympics to the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany as an insult to the Chinese people.

The editorial by ex-British Cabinet minister Michael Portillo published in The Sunday Times revealed the despicable psychology of some people, spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.

Authorities had pledged harsh punishment for those participating in the violence.

The Tibet Daily quoted the national police chief as saying monks would be subjected to patriotic education classes, and he accused the protesters of violating Buddhist tenants.

In such classes, monks are forced to denounce their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who remains widely revered despite Beijing’s relentless vilification, and declare their loyalty to the communist government.

China’s communist troops entered Tibet in 1950, and the country claims to have owned the Himalayan region for seven centuries. Many Tibetans say they were effectively an independent nation for most of that time.
China lets foreign journalists visit Tibet – found here.

China lets foreign journalists visit Tibet

LHASA, China (AP) — China has announced the surrender of hundreds of people over anti-government riots among Tibetans, and also allowed the first group of foreign journalists to visit the regional capital since the violence began.

The moves appear calculated to bolster government claims that authorities are in control of the situation, and that the protests that began peacefully were acts of destruction and murder.

The protests embarrassed and frustrated the government ahead of this summer’s Beijing Olympics, leading it to flood Tibet with troops and ban foreign journalists.

The protests took a violent turn on March 14, when rioters set hundreds of fires in Lhasa and attacked ethnic Chinese.

State-run media announced on Wednesday that more than 600 people had turned themselves in to police in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, and in Sichuan province, where unrest also broke out.

Police also published a list of 53 people wanted in connection with the riots, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. At least 29 people have been formally arrested, but it was not clear if they were among the 53 on the wanted list.

It was unclear how much freedom to report the small group of foreign journalists, among them an Associated Press reporter, would have during the government-arranged two-day trip.

The first several hours of the visit gave the group only a limited glimpse of Lhasa. The bus drive from the airport into the Tibetan capital was purposely slow, taking about 90 minutes to go 40 miles despite repeated pleas from the reporters to speed up.

The bus passed three checkpoints on the way, all manned by police in regular uniforms. Single police officers also were stationed at almost every cross street on the road to Lhasa.

The bus made a stop close to one of the checkpoints, and when several reporters walked back to see, government minders hurried along as well.

About five uniformed officers were stopping cars. One officer, Cun Luobu, said the checkpoint was set up March 14, but added they were checking only for people not wearing seat belts, for violating traffic rules and for having fake license plates.

Although Chinese state television has been repeatedly showing scenes of damage from the riots there was little visible destruction in the areas of Lhasa where reporters were taken. See protesters in India burn Chinese goods.

Armed police in camouflage uniforms were stationed at several places that appeared to be government offices. Machine guns were strapped across their chests, the highest state of readiness.

The reporters were taken to Potala Square, below the Potala Palace — the traditional seat of Tibetan rulers, which reopened Wednesday for the first time since March 14.

A reporter from Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao newspaper managed to talk to two Tibetans on the square who said security was tight and that they were often stopped for identification checks, but that they were allowed to move around the city.

The reporters were then taken a few blocks away where many shops had been burned out during the rioting.

Some of the stores that had not been damaged had white ceremonial scarves hanging from them. During the rioting, many Tibetans did that to let protesters know not to stone or burn the buildings because they belonged to Tibetans.

The journalists also were taken down Qingnian Road, another hard-hit street. At the end of the street was a two-story medical clinic that had been burned out.

A red banner hanging from a newly built arch on the road had Construct a Harmonious Society in gold Chinese writing. Harmonious society is a catch-phrase of President Hu Jintao to show the government’s efforts to deal with social unrest created by an increasing gap between an urban middle class and the poor, largely rural masses.

The police presence in the parts of the city where reporters were taken was not noticeably heavy. In the Old City, members of the People’s Armed Police were checking identification, but allowing people to pass by.

The reporters were not prevented from leaving their hotel Wednesday night, but were encouraged not to go out by their government handlers.

Don’t go out without informing us. It is for your own safety, said Guo Weiming of the Information Office of the State Council, China’s Cabinet.

Asked to comment on the media trip, the Dalai Lama called it a first step and said he hoped it would take place with complete freedom. Then you can access the real situation.

The uprising was the broadest and most sustained against Chinese rule in almost two decades. Thousands of troops and police have been deployed to contain the unrest. Watch Tibetans being arrested in Nepal.

The government says at least 22 people have died in Lhasa; Tibetan rights groups say nearly 140 Tibetans were killed, including 19 in Gansu province.

So far, the U.S., Britain and Germany all have condemned China for its response to the protests, but stopped short of threatening to boycott the games or the August 8 opening ceremony.

On Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry lashed out at a British newspaper editorial comparing the Beijing Olympics to the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany as an insult to the Chinese people.

The editorial by ex-British Cabinet minister Michael Portillo published in The Sunday Times revealed the despicable psychology of some people, spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.

Authorities had pledged harsh punishment for those participating in the violence.

The Tibet Daily quoted the national police chief as saying monks would be subjected to patriotic education classes, and he accused the protesters of violating Buddhist tenants.

In such classes, monks are forced to denounce their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who remains widely revered despite Beijing’s relentless vilification, and declare their loyalty to the communist government.

China’s communist troops entered Tibet in 1950, and the country claims to have owned the Himalayan region for seven centuries. Many Tibetans say they were effectively an independent nation for most of that time.
China lets foreign journalists visit Tibet – found here.

Family ties: Candidates’ ancestry makes for strange bedfellows

(CNN) — Perhaps, now the candidates will play nice.

For all their insistence on how unlike they are from one another, the three U.S. presidential candidates share some noteworthy family connections, the New England Historic Genealogical Society has found.

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who has made his opposition to the Iraq war a linchpin of his campaign, is distantly related not only to President George W. Bush but also to another wartime leader — former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Because of his shared ancestry with President Bush, Obama is also indirectly related to his rival on the Republican side, Sen. John McCain.

McCain, it turns out, is a sixth cousin of First Lady Laura Bush.

Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary Clinton, is related to beatnik author Jack Kerouac, Canadian Prime Minster Pierre Trudeau and Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Prince Charles of England.

Clinton also shares ancestors with Grammy Award-winning singers Celine Dion and Madonna.

The senator won a Best Spoken Word Grammy for the audio version of her book, It Takes a Village. Rival Obama also snagged one in the same category for his book The Audacity of Hope.

Conservatives who sometimes accuse Democrats of being in bed with liberal Hollywood elites may have been handed one more round of ammunition by the Society’s findings.

Clinton, the Society said, is related to Angelina Jolie. And Obama is related to Jolie’s boyfriend Brad Pitt. Watch a report on the candidates’ family trees and other news

The New England Historic Genealogical Society, founded in 1845, says it is the oldest such organization in the country. Members spent three years tracing the lineage of the candidates.

Among its other findings:

McCain, the Vietnam War veteran who spent five years as a prisoner of war, descends from a long line of kings: Scottish King William the Lion, English King Edward I and French King Louis VII.

Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, is related to millions of contemporary Americans – perhaps even a significant percentage of the population, the researchers said.

He is cousins with six U.S presidents, including Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman and Gerald Ford. He is also linked to American artist Georgia O’Keefe, the Duchess of Windsor and two men who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Most surprisingly, Obama — the man who could become America’s first African-American president — is linked by ancestry to Robert E. Lee, who commanded the armies of the Southern slave-holding states during the American civil war.

Bedfellows, it turns out, make for strange politics.
Family ties: Candidates’ ancestry makes for strange bedfellows – found here.

Family ties: Candidates’ ancestry makes for strange bedfellows

(CNN) — Perhaps, now the candidates will play nice.

For all their insistence on how unlike they are from one another, the three U.S. presidential candidates share some noteworthy family connections, the New England Historic Genealogical Society has found.

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who has made his opposition to the Iraq war a linchpin of his campaign, is distantly related not only to President George W. Bush but also to another wartime leader — former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Because of his shared ancestry with President Bush, Obama is also indirectly related to his rival on the Republican side, Sen. John McCain.

McCain, it turns out, is a sixth cousin of First Lady Laura Bush.

Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary Clinton, is related to beatnik author Jack Kerouac, Canadian Prime Minster Pierre Trudeau and Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Prince Charles of England.

Clinton also shares ancestors with Grammy Award-winning singers Celine Dion and Madonna.

The senator won a Best Spoken Word Grammy for the audio version of her book, It Takes a Village. Rival Obama also snagged one in the same category for his book The Audacity of Hope.

Conservatives who sometimes accuse Democrats of being in bed with liberal Hollywood elites may have been handed one more round of ammunition by the Society’s findings.

Clinton, the Society said, is related to Angelina Jolie. And Obama is related to Jolie’s boyfriend Brad Pitt. Watch a report on the candidates’ family trees and other news

The New England Historic Genealogical Society, founded in 1845, says it is the oldest such organization in the country. Members spent three years tracing the lineage of the candidates.

Among its other findings:

McCain, the Vietnam War veteran who spent five years as a prisoner of war, descends from a long line of kings: Scottish King William the Lion, English King Edward I and French King Louis VII.

Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, is related to millions of contemporary Americans – perhaps even a significant percentage of the population, the researchers said.

He is cousins with six U.S presidents, including Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman and Gerald Ford. He is also linked to American artist Georgia O’Keefe, the Duchess of Windsor and two men who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Most surprisingly, Obama — the man who could become America’s first African-American president — is linked by ancestry to Robert E. Lee, who commanded the armies of the Southern slave-holding states during the American civil war.

Bedfellows, it turns out, make for strange politics.
Family ties: Candidates’ ancestry makes for strange bedfellows – found here.