Open Letters for President Obama to CHANGE His Russia Policy

Leading foreign policy experts and Senators sent their open letters to urge President Barack Obama to stand tough against Russia. On July 1, the Foreign Policy Initiative, a newly launched think tank led by Robert Kagan and William Kristol, urged President Obama to mention human rights and democracy in Russia in the forthcoming US-Russian Summit in Moscow ("Open Letter to President Obama on Democracy and Human Rights in Russia"; Foreign Policy Initiative; July 1, 2009).

About 40 signatories demanded that Obama be true to his conviction to freedom in the world famous Prague and Cairo speeches. Policy experts who signed this letter are concerned with retreat of political and economic freedom in Russia since Vladimir Putin became the President. At the end of the letter, signatories stressed that President Obama not reset the US-Russian relationship at the expense of Russian citizens and Russia’s neighbors.

The following day, influential senators, including John McCain and Joseph Lieberman, pressured the President not to withdraw the anti-missile defense plan in the negotiation with Russia to renew the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). They argued that interests of the United States and allies must not be sacrificed (“Letter to President Obama from Senators Inhofe, Lieberman, Kyl, Nelson, McCain, Begich, Sessions, Johanns, Wicker, and Hatch”; July 2, 2009).

Both open letters are publicized in such a critical time. Quite recently, President Obama is criticized for his inaction to blame autocrats in Iran and Honduras. Signatories of both letters urge Barack Obama to act as the President of the United States.

Both letters sound somewhat similar to what is stated in the well known message for President-then Bill Clinton on Iraq. The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) criticized Clinton’s inaction against Saddam Hussein. Now, Russia has reemerged as a new threat to symbolize the failure of Clinton era diplomacy.

Both letters have insignificant implications beyond the Russian issue, but to the whole US foreign policy. What is tested is not just President Obama’s competence in foreign policy, but his devotion to American ideals.

Don’t Miss the Forthcoming US-Russian Strategic Arms Reduction Talk

Just before G8 Summit in L’Aquila in Italy from July 8 to 10, the United States and Russia will negotiate on strategic arms reduction from July 6 to 8 in Moscow (“Obama, Medvedev to talk nukes in July”; Press TV; 17 May 2009). Prior to the meeting between President Barack Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev, US and Russian officials discuss disarmament. See the video below by Russia Today.

Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of US Joint Chief of Staff, and General Nikolai Makarov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, met in Moscow on June 26 to make preparations for the bilateral summit. Professor Mikhail Troitsky of Moscow State University of International Relations comments that both the United States and Russia want a landmark for mutual disarmament.


“Security talks can relaunch Russia-US relations”; June 26, 2009



“US is not intending to threaten Russia in any way – US top military official”; June 27, 2009



Anti-missile defense will be a key agenda in the negotiation. Yury Rogulev, director of the Franklin Roosevelt Foundation at Moscow State University, foresee that the talk will be tough.


“The AMD and START issues cannot be separated”; June 26, 2009



The United States and Russia agree that START Ⅰ must be renewed before it expires thus December. However, both sides disagree over US anti-missile defense system to be deployed in Poland and Czech. Will Obama withdraw the plan made by his predecessor George W. Bush, or not (“Will Obama shoot down Bush’s missile dreams during Moscow visit?”; Russia Today; July 1, 2009) ?

Meanwhile, conservatives in the United States are concerned that the Obama administration is too hasty to start the nuclear negotiation with Russia, as the team has not reviewed its own nuclear and defense policy sufficiently (“U.S. and Russia Push Arms-Control Talks Forward”; Wall Street Journal; June 2, 2009).


Don’t miss the Obama-Medvedev Summit in Moscow. Other issues, including Iran, North Korea, and the War on Terror are also discussed between the Big 2.

Paris 1890 Unlaced! at Ventfort Hall, Lenox, MA

Paris 1890 Unlaced!
Kevin Sprague photos.
There was a full house for the Opening Night performance and Reception for Paris, 1890, Unlaced at Ventfrot Hall Mansion and Museum of the Gilded Age. The play was commissioned by Ventfort Hall from playwright and author Juliane Hiam and features the marvelous Anne Undeland in multiple roles. Sarah Taylor, formerly of Shakespeare & Company, directed. For more information please go to http://www.gildedage.org. Most of the wonderful photos are by Kevin Sprague, who seems to have become the documentarian for theatrical history in the Berkshires.

Juliane Hiam who wrote the play was able to travel back in time and conjures up the memories of a young courtesan from the era when the Eiffel Tower was built. It was the period in which Monet, Renoir, Degas and Toulouse-Latrec walked the streets of Paris and frequented the nightclubs. 1890 was the year that Debussy composed Claire de Lune. It was a very different time, one of sexual repression but in Paris, things were already becoming more modern. The 1890's are also when the first playwrights began writing realistic theatre, the plays of Ibsen, Shaw, and yes, even Feydeau that are the foundation of modern theatre.

Undeland in performance.
Anne Undeland captures the Belle Époque in her characterizations of the four or five women we meet in the play. They were known as The Grand Horizontals. I can not help but wonder if the customers were called The Grand Verticals. Or possible the Petite Perpendiculars.

In mid-nineteenth-century France, frigid and frail was fashionable. The perfect woman was timid, submissive, and lacked "sexual feeling of any kind." Just when it seemed that it was possible to keep women quiet and under control, the Grand Horizontals appeared. These famous courtesans wreaked havoc in Paris for almost twenty years. They were relentless hedonists in the true sense of the word: they loved pleasure, money, and mastered the art of seduction.

Each afternoon at 5pm they rolled through town in custom carriages while mobs of flustered onlookers watched from the sidelines. The tabloids recorded their adventures in details: "masked balls, dinners of peacock galantine, and preposterous stunts." From The Fact Box Blog

The lacing and unlacing was a turn-on.
At the performance I attended, there were five women for every man there, perhaps to learn a few tricks, or for pure historical background. It did seem to me that in delivering her performance, Anne Undeland engaged her audience directly, fixing her gaze on each and every person seated there, drawing them in - seducing them, even - into her world of pleasure. Many members of the audience had smiles on their faces throughout the show. As much as it is a testament to the power of a good performance, it also speaks volumes about seduction and sexual attraction.

The play keeps moving thanks to the swift pacing of director Sarah Taylor, and brings to light an intriguing mystery featuring five women – all performed by Ms. Undeland: “Juliette,” a contemporary Gilded Age Museum director, “La Crème,” an infamous Parisian courtesan; “Hettie,” the wife of La Crème’s benefactor; “La Chapellier,” a very talkative milliner; “Gertrude,” an American innocent abroad; and finally, “The Virgin,” a flash-in-the-pan celebrity in the Montmarte nightclub scene – singer, dancer, aspiring courtesan. In Citizen Kane style, as we hear from each successive character, we come a little closer to solving the mystery around which the entire play is constructed.

Ventfort Hall is one of 75 Gilded Age mansions built in Lenox.
My friend and colleague Gail Burns has written a marvelous review and overview of this play at Gail Sez. It's a historic and fun look at this from the woman's perspective. Paris 1890 Unlaced plays until September 6, 2009 and if you are the least bit interested in this period of history, or in how incredibly magnetic these courtesans were, you should not miss this play. It runs just over an hour without any intermission, and tickets are $22.00. Yes, it is slightly risqué.

Nicole Kidman played a courtesin in Moulin Rouge.
You can reserve tickets by calling 413.637.3206 or visiting http://www.gildedage.org Ventfort Hall is located at 104 Walker Street, Lenox, MA 01240 but keep alert, they are set back in the woods, and their street entrance sign is tiny.

The playing space is intimate.

The Iran Test: Ex-Advisor to Lady Thatcher Questions Apologist Speeches at Prague and Cairo

See the above video of C-Span. Senator John McCain gives a tributary speech to Neda Agha-Soltan who was brutally shot by Iranian police when she attended a democracy movement on the street in Tehran. Despite mounting pressure across the United States and overseas, President Barack Obama is still obsessed with the past CIA coup d’état to topple Mohammed Mossadegh and too hesitant to assume leadership to act against Iran. Supposed to be Kantian leaders of Europe, such as President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, are more active to support Iranian resistance.

It is almost six month since the inauguration. I mark the famous words by Vice President Joseph Biden, and I regard this crisis as the most critical test for President Obama. The media across the world bowed down and praised President Obama’s speeches at Prague and Cairo to repent for arrogant global strategies of past presidents. Current crises cannot be managed through such apologist appeals of populism, and the world needs a strong superpower to defeat threats to our liberal world order. North Korea is just a test for a crisis management skill, but Iran is beyond this. It is a real test for Barack Obama’s moral leadership on the global stage and his loyalty to American values. Conservatives have been questioning them ever since his wife Michelle’s extremely well known remark of For the first time, I feel proud of my country.

The Washington Post discussed Obama’s leadership credential over the Iranian Crisis, and quoted pro-con commentaries by experts (“Iran Unrest Reveals Split in U.S. on Its Role Abroad”; Washington Post; June 23, 2009). Among them, I am impressed with one by Nile Gardiner, Former Foreign Policy Researcher for ex-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Gardiner says "It's almost as if the president lacks confidence in the greatness of his own nation. He seems unwilling to aggressively project American global power, as if it were something to be ashamed of." This is what I have been feeling exactly since the Prague and the Cairo speeches.

Currently, Nile Gardiner is the Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation. Gardiner criticizes President Obama’s apologism in his articles. He points out “The world today is considerably more dangerous than it was in the days of the Bush Administration, and the Obama White House has nothing to show for its weak-kneed efforts. The brutal truth is that the United States is increasingly viewed as a soft touch by its enemies, increasingly jeered rather than feared.” However, Gardiner insists that it is not too late for Obama to change Carter-styled diplomacy (“Barack Obama should stop apologising for America”; Daily Telegraph; 3 June 2009). In another article, Gardiner lists problematic apologies, and said “American leadership is not a popularity contest, nor should it be an exercise in self-loathing. Rather, it is about taking tough positions that will be met with hostility in many parts of the globe. Above all, it demands the assertive projection of American power, both to secure the homeland and to protect America's allies” (“Barack Obama's Top 10 Apologies: How the President Has Humiliated a Superpower”; Heritage Memo; June 2, 200).

Mark Hyman, Commentator of Sinclair Broadcasting Group, comments much more bitterly, and he says that Obama’s foreign policy comes from spiritual influence of his childhood mentor, Pastor Wright, notorious anti-white agitator (“Jeremiah Wright Foreign Policy”; American Spectator; June 26, 2009).

The global public has marked the words by Joseph Biden. Now, it is time to mark the words by Nile Gardiner. The media and global liberals love to see President Obama apologize for and humiliate America. The Iran crisis tells us how dangerous that sort of populism is. Will the President transform himself from Barack Carter Obama into Barack Truman Obama?



See the following video comments by Nile Gardiner.

Fox New 5; June 16, 2009
Fox Business; June 17, 2009

On Cellphones, Blackberries, Theatre Etiquette

Patti LuPone recently reprimanded yet another inconsiderate audience member publicly, and the discussion has raged on. But this is the best summary of the issue that I have seen.


If the President of the United States can manage to make it through a 2-hour theatre-going experience without disturbing his fellow theatregoers with his much-beloved Blackberry, then *anyone* should be able to do the same.

That said, it should have been the house management enforcing the ban. That same blue light that annoys nearby patrons should be readily visible to any relatively attentive ushers.

In the Berkshires, this is not much of a problem since people seem to be a bit more civilized, and the volunteer ushers are sitting right there, with the audience.

Great Ticket Deal from Williamstown Theatre Festival

Judith Light and James Waterston in Children.
Photo by T. Charles Erickson
For five days only, today until June 30, you can buy TWO tickets to the Williamstown Theatre Festival for just $55.00, that's an amazing $27.50 each for what is arguably the best live theatre outside of Broadway. This offer is being made to the Berkshire Community to help us share in their Fifty Fifth Anniversary Season. Regular ticket prices are $50-59 for Children on the Main Stage and $30-35 for Knickerbocker at the Nikos.

The offer is only valid for performances of Children and Knickerbocker both of which open soon.

CHILDREN
by A.R. Gurney
directed by John Tillinger
July 1-12
Tony-nominee John Tillinger directs this timeless Gurney classic set in a large summer home on an island off the coast of Massachusetts. When an estranged brother’s return and a mother’s impending marriage recall painful memories of their father’s death, seething arguments reignite one family’s struggle with its tragic past and uncertain future.

With Mary Bacon, Katie Finneran, Judith Light, James Waterston

KNICKERBOCKER
by Jonathan Marc Sherman
directed by Nicholas Martin
July 8-19
Are you ready? The question looms over Jerry as the months tick by and his unborn son grows from the size of a peach to the size of, well, a baby. As the birth date creeps ever nearer, will the advice, encouragement and warnings of friends and family make Jerry more or less ready? The awe and terror of becoming a new parent shines through Sherman’s newest play as he examines whether one can ever truly be ready for parenthood. Artistic Director Nicholas Martin directs this world premiere.

With Brooks Ashmanskas, Peter Dinklage, Bob Dishy, Rightor Doyle, Annie Parisse, Susan Pourfar, Reg Rogers.

WTF Artistic Director Nicholas Martin.
There is a new and exclusive interview of Nicholas Martin in Berkshire Fine Arts which reveals that his directorial and artistic magic touch is still a much sought after commodity on Broadway, despite the stroke he suffered last fall. Theatre people never slow down, they just soldier on.

The Williamstown Theatre Festival box office is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 to 5 and Sundays 11 to 4, and closed on Mondays. Offer valid through June 30, 2009 only for any performance of CHILDREN or KNICKERBOCKER. Tickets must be purchased either by phone at 413.597.3400 or in person at the box office using the code “55–2009.” This offer cannot be combined with any other discount and is not applicable to previously purchased tickets. Tickets and seating subject to availability. Standard box office policies apply. All sales are final. No refunds or exchanges.

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The Yekaterinburg Summit and the Failure of the Clintonian Attempt to Tame Russia and China

Watch the above video broadcasted by a new TV network founded in Russia in the post Soviet era (Mega-deals and security to link China and Russia”; Russia Today; June 17, 2009). This company, named Russia Today, provides Russian viewpoints in English for the global public, just as Al Jazeera presents Arab standpoints.

At the BRICs Summit at Yekaterinburg, Russia and China praised unprecedentedly good bilateral relations these days, and signed trade deals to expand economic cooperation. Quite importantly, they insisted that their dependence on the dollar be lowered, and more national currencies be used in international business. Clearly, Russia and China expressed their solid determination to confront the West in the economy.

The joint press conference by President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia and President Hu Jing Tao of China illustrates that Clintonian attempt to incorporate both new capitalist nations has ended in failure. Instead of becoming good citizens of Western-led liberal framework of global political economy, Russia and China decided to challenge us and establish their own order in their economic zone.

The dollar standard is founded on the trust to political and military power of the United States, and this is beyond economic rationalism. Both Russia and China are building up their armed forces rapidly to rival against the West, and expand their influence in their neighborhood. Such dangerous opponents are posing another challenge to us. What’s next?

At this stage, Russia and China cannot afford to make their currencies alternatives to US dollar. According to US Department of Treasury, both giants are dependent on the fortunes of US dollar debt (“Alternatives to the Dollar? Not So Fast”; Reuters Blog Commentaries; June 15, 2009).

Also, BRICs nations have mutual disagreements from the economy to security (“BRIC plotters stage a farce”; Asia Times; June 20, 2009). Apparently, Brazil and India are not interested in defying our regime, and they do not build up their military power so rapidly as Russia and China do.

Powerful enough or not, Russia and China declared their desire to dissemble an Anglo-American liberal order of the Bretton Woods System, and transform the global economy into a regime that reflects their authoritarian statist ideology. Economists are liable to talk of their emergence solely in terms of the market economy, and dismiss political threats posed by their ambition. But any economic policy is politically designed. Therefore, I regard their will to challenge us critical to global security.

The Yekaterinburg Summit is a landmark to show that the Clintonian attempt to incorporate Russia and China into our global economy was shattered. How can we deal with their ambition to challenge our preeminence in the world? What happens if we appease them? They may not be strong enough at this stage, but it is their will to overturn our preeminence that matters.　History has not ended, but it has started again.