NDN Blog

Al Gore has a strongly worded op-ed in the Times today on climate change.  It also previews the Live Earth concerts next week, and the pledge we will be asked to take:

Next Saturday, on all seven continents, the Live Earth concert will ask for the attention of humankind to begin a three-year campaign to make everyone on our planet aware of how we can solve the climate crisis in time to avoid catastrophe. Individuals must be a part of the solution. In the words of Buckminster Fuller, “If the success or failure of this planet, and of human beings, depended on how I am and what I do, how would I be? What would I do?”

Live Earth will offer an answer to this question by asking everyone who attends or listens to the concerts to sign a personal pledge to take specific steps to combat climate change. (More details about the pledge are available at algore.com.)

In today's Post Jose Vargas takes a deep look at how folks in politics are using mobile telephony and media this cycle.  The story features NPI Fellow Tim Chambers, and our his recent report for NPI.  You can find Tim's report at www.newpolitics.net. 

Today it is clear that the Republican Party has assumed a new role in American politics - as committed and determined enemies of progress.

Whatever the issue - Iraq, energy policy, much needed investments in our workers and kids, and now the immigration bill - the Republicans have proven themselves incapable of tackling the emerging challenges of the 21st century.

You would think that they would have learned from what happened to them in 2006.  After years of terrible government, important challenges unmet and repeated betrayals of the public trust, the American people threw the Republicans from power.  The message they sent is that they once again wanted an American government focused on solving the great challenges facing the nation.

They wanted progress, not politics.

On this immigration bill the Republicans had it all.  They had a deep and broad coalition that included the Chamber of Commerce, leading labor unions, the Catholic Church, their own President and all the leaders of the Democratic Party.  They had a bill that passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support in 2006.  They had the political lesson of how this issue failed to help them in the last election.  And they had a Democrat, Senator Ted Kennedy, who did everything he could to accommodate their demands, even when they were impractical, unreasonable and mean-spirited. 

Yet despite all this the immigration bill did not move forward.  We are left with a broken immigration system that threatens our national security and betrays our core values.  It is simply unacceptable that we have not made progress on this issue of pressing national concern.  And what we must all realize is there has been one party - the Democrats - who have done everything they could to solve this vexing national problem.  And the other party, the Republicans, have used every tool at their disposal to block, delay, and cripple any progress. 

Democrats, now in power, are looking for partners in helping move this great country forward.  What they are getting from the Republicans is more of what the nation saw these last six years - an inability to do what is necessary to meet the challenges of our new century.  On this immigration bill the Republicans have shown that they have become something sad, defeated, without ideas and angry.  The whole nation should be nostalgic for the party of Reagan.  Instead what we now have is a GOP that is simply incapable of serving as a serious partner in helping America meet the daunting challenges of our new century.

While the media is suggesting that we are now seeing swirling around immigration is a debate, what we are really witnessing is the meltdown of one of the two major political parties in America today - the GOP.  

The latest example comes this morning in an article in the Washington Post that reports that the Senate GOP is now embracing a new immigration strategy explicitly opposed by their own Department of Homeland Security.  It is also opposed by the White House, some GOP Senators, the Democrats, and of course is a betrayal of the deal cobbled together by the two sides some weeks ago.  This move is so desperate, so craven, so impractical that it is literally mind-boggling.  Senator Mel Martinez, in particular, should be ashamed of himself. 

With each passing day it is hard to see what's left of the GOP here in Washington as anything but bitter enemies of progress.  They blocked common sense provisions in the Energy bill.  They are undermining their own President on immigration and continue to demonize immigrants themselves.  They've resisted all attempts to improve their catastrophic Iraq strategy.  They've resisted repeated calls to restore the integrity of Justice.   Their leading Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, has called for the expansion of Guantanamo.  The list goes on....

More soon....

We will be talking about this new Post series on Cheney for a long time.  The 2nd installment runs today.  There is so much in here that it defies a quick am blog post, and is both informative and tragic at the same time.

As many of you know NDN has been a leader in the fight to improve and reform our broken immigration system through two year long effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform.  During the course of what has become an epic political battle, it has become clear to me that this issue of immigration - or more appropriately "migration" - is going to one of the central issues facing America and the world in the years ahead. 

In today's New York Times, the ever able Jason DeParle offers a sweeping opening article in what will be a series of stories about global migration.  There is much to recommend about the piece, but the one thing you shouldn't miss is the global map from the Migration Policy Institute showing annual migration rates around the world in this decade. 

The map underscores what a unique moment in history we are living in.  A series of developments - the collapse of communism, a period of relative political stability and global peace, the incredible spread of information technology, the success of Clinton era trade liberalization policies - has created an unprecedented, dynamic and truly global economy.   Goods, information, money are moving around the world with every greater speed.   Hundreds of millions have risen from poverty in the just the past decade.  Half of he world's six billion people are now connected to the global communications network through mobile phones or the internet.   We live in a time of tremendous progress, where the standard of living of people throughout the world is rising at historic levels, and where we are becoming more connected to one another than ever before. 

This progress of course is not without areas of concerns.  Large parts of Africa and the Middle East have been slow to take advantage of the new opportunities this period brings.  New growth brings greater pressure on the environment throughout the world.  Greater demand for oil has empowered petrodictators like Chavez and Putin.  And what DeParle's piece lays out is how rising standards of living, greater mobility, this communications revolution will all make it more likely that an even greater number of people will choose to migrate from their home countries in the coming years.  People are trying to move with the same speed as the rest of global capitalism.  But of course, it isn't that easy, as we are finding out with the immigration battle here in the United States. 

That's why I believe this immigration battle, and the ones certainly to follow, are so important.  This debate says so much about our ability to understand the moment we are in, how the world and the United States are changing, and come up strategies and plans to help our great nation and its people prosper in it.  The people and the nations of the world, increasingly, to borrow from Bono, are becoming "one."  There has perhaps never been a moment in human history where it has been more true that "we are all in this together."  In many ways these developments are exciting, wonderful, hopeful.  But the emergence, power and increasing velocity of globalization in the early 21st century is also challenging cultures, identity, governments and the very idea of the state itself in ways that I dont think we've done a whole lot of thinking about. 

But that's why we started our Globalization Initiative last year, and we have fought so hard to help resolve this immigration debate in a way that works for all Americans, current and future.  Our new century requires a whole lot of new thinking, and I know of no better community to help lead the way in helping America meet the new challenges of our new day than the one we've built together here at NDN. 

Last summer I came along a book that had a truly profound impact on my understanding of the Middle East, Vali Nasr's excellent book, The Shia Revival.   As readers of this blog know I have aggressively promoted it, and you can even find an interview I conducted with Vali recently on our main site here. It is a true must-read for anyone seeking a better understanding of the Middle East today.

This summer I have come across another book that strongly recommend to friends and family - The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs.  Few books I have ever read are as informed, as optimistic, as well-written, as important as this one.  Sachs lays out a powerful vision for how to eradicate extreme poverty in the world, and a pragmatic plan to get it done.  Like with Nasr, I hope we can get the Professor Sachs to address the NDN family some time in the not so distant future.

Yesterday here in Washington, D.C., NDN announced a major expansion of its path-breaking Globalization Initiative. This new expansion will allow NDN to dramatically increase its work in shaping one of the most important debates in American politics today – how to best make globalization work for all Americans.

NDN’s expansion has three main components:

The Launching of the Schwartz Forums on Economic Policy - The Globalization Initiative is launching a new, high-level set of events, the Bernard Schwartz Forums on Economic Policy. These events will be a major new vehicle to advance the case that the United States is well-positioned for globalization as a national economy and has the resources to undertake investments in infrastructure, research and development, and access to health care, and the education and skills of Americans for national economic success in the 21st century. These high-level discussions will take place in the Bay Area, New York and Washington, D.C., over the next year.

Expanded Staff, More Original Work – NDN is also excited to announce that Maggie Barker, an experienced economic analyst, is joining the Initiative as its new Policy Director. In the coming months, NDN expects to add several high-level part-time Fellows. The additional staff will work with NDN Globalization Initiative Director, Dr. Rob Shapiro, to produce even more original work, including the next series of papers in its 21st century skills series, which was launched last month with a paper called A Laptop in Every Backpack.

To mark this important new stage of NDN’s work on globalization and global economics, NDN is also releasing a major new paper by NDN Globalization Initiative Director, Dr. Rob Shapiro, former chief economic advisor to the 1992 Clinton Presidential campaign, and Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs in the 2nd Clinton Administration. Titled The New Landscape of Globalization: How America Can Reap Its Rewards and Reduce Its Costs, the paper argues:

“We live in a new period in our economic development, shaped by the demands of globalization and new technologies. So far, American businesses and workers have adapted quickly and well to these forces; and as a result, the United States has experienced stronger growth and productivity gains than any other large, advanced nation. These same factors also have serious adverse effects for millions of Americans. Even as growth and productivity have surged, new job creation and wage increases both have slowed sharply. We can address these adverse effects without sacrificing the benefits of globalization and technological advance, principally by expanding public investments in critical areas and reforming health care and energy policies.”

Creating a National Debate – NDN will also be doing more to use the latest tools available to bring this vital debate to more people. NDN will be expanding the presence of its Initiative on the internet, and will be inviting Presidential candidates to offer their views on globalization to NDN in live, webcast public events this year. Already, Presidential candidate Bill Richardson has agreed to address NDN on the theme of "making globalization work for all Americans," with a time and location to be announced soon.

NDN would like to thank Mr. Bernard Schwartz for his generous grant that has made this major new phase in our globalization work possible.

For additional information on NDN's Globalization Initiative, please visit our website at www.ndn.org. Comments on Dr. Shapiro's new paper or the globalization paper may be submitted to us at allamericans@ndn.org.

The change in mobile telephony and media is accelerating:

AT&T Inc. on Tuesday launched what it said is the first service letting callers share live video between cell phones.

The new AT&T Video Share service won't apply to the iPhone, which uses an older network. AT&T has an exclusive deal to offer service for much-anticipated Apple Inc. device.

But the launch of the video service adds to the company's momentum as it gears up for the June 29 introduction of the iPhone, which it called a ''game-changer'' for the telecommunications industry.

Video Share was introduced in three markets -- Atlanta, Dallas and San Antonio -- to start with and will be available elsewhere in late July.

It works only on the company's 3G, or third-generation, wireless network and requires a Video Share-capable phone, AT&T said. The company said it will offer Video Share service packs for $4.99 and $9.99 a month, depending on included minutes. Without a plan, the service costs 35 cents a minute.

New AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson told a telecommunications industry trade show in Chicago that the new service has the potential to expand rapidly beyond wireless-to-wireless.

''You should expect this to quickly reach the other two screens, and that's the PC and the television,'' he said at NXTcomm...

Obama launched his first major foray into mobile today. 

EJ Dionne has an important look at recent polling data that suggests that while the GOP has fallen, Democrats have yet to take full advantage of the opportunity the moment presents.

This is a theme being explored in depth at the Take Back America Conference this week in Washington, DC.  A selection of our essays on this theme, something we call "the end of the conservative ascendency" can be found here.  I will be speaking at the conference later this morning on media and showing some of the more than $10 m worth of ads produced by NDN and the New Democrat Network in recent years.  Hope to see you there.