Go Read: US-China Tussles Over Currency Exchange

You may have heard that next week President Obama will be visiting Asia, and significantly, the People's Republic of China. One big bone of contention is the way China pegs its Yuan (or RenMinBi) to the US Dollar. For a long time, it was at 8Y : $1USD. Currently it seems to be running 7:1. The US has been trying to get China to change the practice, and this post from Campaign for America's Future explains why.

Would prices go up at Walmart if China changed its currency to reflect the dollar's relative weakening worldwide? Probably. But maybe, as even Treasury Secretary Geithner has said, American workers would have a fighting chance if the RMB were to stop being manipulated to China's unilateral self-interest.

In the next week, it'll be interesting to see if the initial softening of China's Central Bank to the more flexible policy Geithner called for will continue after President Obama and President Hu Jintao meet.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k. Her retired parents, like many in the Chinese diaspora, spend part of the year living in Shanghai and maintain a connection to the country of their birth. It was her dad, a lifelong basketball fan, who told her Le Bron James' nickname in China is "Lao3 Bei2 Jing4" or "Old Beijing."

Breaking: President Barack Obama Wins the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

Congratulations on the honor, President Obama!

UPDATED TO ADD:

From the Nobel Prize website's official press release:

...awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

We'll have more on the international and domestic response to the world's most significant humanitarian award to President Obama as it develops.

Must-See TV for understanding U.S. role in recent Iranian history

On Monday June 22 at 9 p.m, Eastern, the National Geographic Channel will air a new documentary, Iran and the West. About the relationship between Iran and the United States since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the film features interviews with several key players from some of the most significant interactions between the U.S. and Iran over the past thirty years, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, U.S. officials from the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, U.N. diplomats, European negotiators, and even one of the Iranian students who once held American citizens hostage at the American Embassy in Iran.

Why Obama is right not to openly pick a side in the Iranian election conflict

Women protest Iranian election results - Photo by Farhad Rajabali. Creative Commons license. Source: Flickr.

When protests erupted across Iran over the weekend in response to disputed Presidential election results, the Obama administration issued some very delicate statements.

On Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "We obviously hope that the outcome reflects the genuine will and desire of the Iranian people."

On Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden said, "There's an awful lot of question about how this election was run. And we'll see. I mean, we're just waiting to see. We don't have, we don't have enough facts to note— to make a firm judgment."

And President Obama himself issued no official statement until today, when he said:

Obviously all of us have been watching the news from Iran.  And I want to start off by being very clear that it is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran's leaders will be; that we respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran, which sometimes the United States can be a handy political football— or discussions with the United States.

Having said all that, I am deeply troubled by the violence that I've been seeing on television.  I think that the democratic process— free speech, the ability of people to peacefully dissent— all those are universal values and need to be respected.  And whenever I see violence perpetrated on people who are peacefully dissenting, and whenever the American people see that, I think they're, rightfully, troubled.

Iran's current president, conservative hardliner Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's claims to have won the election in a landslide— despite pre-election polls that showed him in a neck-and-neck race with his more moderate opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi; despite widespread reports of voting irregularities on election day, and despite anecdotal reports from several communities that their own records from election day do not match the officially released national results— beggars credibility.

And the current regime's iron-fisted reaction to the post-election protests— expelling international journalists from the country, blocking foreign television and radio broadcasts, blocking text messaging and access to certain websites across Iran to disrupt communications, and arresting and shooting at protesters— totally undermines whatever credibility the Iranian government had as a supposedly democratic state. 

Not to mention the fact that, given our country's recent history of turbulent and frustrating relations with Ahmedinejad, our own government leaders almost certainly expect U.S. interests would be better served if Mousavi were declared the true winner.

So why the careful wording? Why hasn't the administration denounced Ahmedinejad and come out in loud, open support of Mousavi's backers, who are currently battling fierce government opposition to demand their right to free and fair elections?

Because if Obama wants Mousavi's supporters to succeed, the last thing he should do is explicitly declare his support for them. 

First Lady Michelle Obama's First 100 Days

President Obama has a work ethic like nobody's business. Already, in the space of 100 days, he's signed laws (or reversed harmful Bush-era policies) that benefit women in 14 different key ways.

But there's no moss growing on First Lady Michelle Obama either. And it's clear there's a supportive dynamic between the legislation President Obama signs and the causes Mrs. Obama champions. Within days of moving into the White House, President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and Michelle Obama led the celebration of the signing and tribute to Ms. Ledbetter.

Go Read It: Frank Rich on the Bush Administration, Torture, and Justifications for the Iraq War

Bush, but especially Cheney, would have the nation believe that information culled from torturing Abu Ghraib detainees "helped prevent another 9/11" and "kept us safe."

But that claim is worse than wishful thinking; it's untrue. Instead, Bush-Cheney authorized torture for a far worse purpose--so argues Frank Rich in an editorial in the NYT today.

Increasingly, evidence shows that torture was authorized by the Bush White House to extract information from detainees to manufacture information supporting an otherwise non-existent link between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, in order to bolster rationalizations for the United States' "pre-emptive strike" on Iraq. Not only is torture wrong, in this case the moral blight was a tool to mitigate the original moral blight: dragging the nation into war under false pretexts, when the Bush White House knew no connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein existed.

Now that the truth is emerging, the question is: what do we the people do with it? I'm talking to all people of voting age in this country, no matter who you voted for in the past election. Do we even care? At the very least, don't we owe the families of 4,278 Iraq war dead a reckoning from the commander-in-chief who asked the ultimate sacrifice of them in bad faith?

Calls to Action on Justice Department Torture Memos

In a victory for government transparency, over the objections of Senate Republicans and several intelligence officials, including former CIA Director Michael Hayden, President Obama authorized the release yesterday of four Bush Administration era Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memos that explicitly authorized the use of techniques internationally recognized as torture during interrogations of prisoners in U.S. custody.

The memos had been the subject of an ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit originally filed during the Bush Administation; Attorney General Eric Holder has been arguing for several weeks that the documents should be declassified. According to anonmous government sources quoted in The Daily Beast, several Senate Republicans threatened to "go nuclear" and block the pending confirmation of President Obama's nominee for Justice Deparment Chief of the Office of Legal Counsel, Dawn Johnsen.

Go Read It: Nicholas Kristof on International Family Planning

This past Sunday, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote a glorious op-ed, Pregnant (Again) and Poor. In his column, Kristof highlighted women's unmet need for family planning services -- some 70 to 80 million unwanted pregnancies per year, according to the UN.

A few days later, he followed up with blog posts, including one that asked readers to share family planning organizations worthy of financial support. I've compiled the list below, with a few additions.

Also, if you want to see what happens when family planning isn't available and women resort to unsafe abortion, go watch Not Yet Rain, Lisa Russell's documentary -- made with help from Ipas (see below) -- on Ethiopia's 2006 decision to liberalize its abortion law.

Breaking News: Obama Response to North Korea Missile Launch

President Obama issued the following statement from the Czech Republic, in response to the news of North Korea's missile testing:

North Korea's development and proliferation of ballistic missile technology pose a threat to the northeast Asian region and to international peace and security.  The launch today of a Taepo-dong 2 missile was a clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, which expressly prohibits North Korea from conducting ballistic missile-related activities of any kind.  With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations.

We will immediately consult with our allies in the region, including Japan and the Republic of Korea, and members of the U.N. Security Council to bring this matter before the Council.  I urge North Korea to abide fully by the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council and to refrain from further provocative actions.

Preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery is a high priority for my administration.  The United States is fully committed to maintaining security and stability in northeast Asia and we will continue working for the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through the Six-Party Talks.  The Six-Party Talks provide the forum for achieving denuclearization, reducing tensions, and for resolving other issues of concern between North Korea, its four neighbors, and the United States.  North Korea has a pathway to acceptance in the international community, but it will not find that acceptance unless it abandons its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and abides by its international obligations and commitments.

North Korea last launched missiles in 2006, which led to UN Resolution 1718.  This launch failed after 40 seconds, landing the missiles 800 miles off the coast of Japan.

New Guantanamo Bay Documentary Premieres This Week on National Geographic

The National Geographic Channel will be showing a new documentary about the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba this Sunday, April 5th. Part of the National Geographic Explorer series, the documentary, Explorer: Inside Guantanamo, offers an exclusive look inside the infamous facility where hundreds of prisoners have been held for years without trial.

The U.S. Department of Defense granted the Directors John Else and Bonni Cohen and their crew unprecedented access to the prison camp for three weeks, beginning in August 2008, during the final months of the Bush administration. Although the camera crew were allowed to speak with government officials and soldiers at the camp, and were allowed to film some scenes inside parts of the Guantanamo compound, they were subject to several restrictions.