barack obama
After Copenhagen
By Mark Bahnisch on December 22, 2009
In the wake of the failure of the Copenhagen Climate Change conference, we’re starting to see some more thoughtful analyses which go beyond the proximate causes of the imbroglio to gesture to more structural factors. Robert has already cited George [...]
Posted in Climate change, Developing world, Disasters, Economics, Energy, Environment, Imperialism, International, Politics, Sociology, USA | Tagged barack obama, Climate change, collective action, Copenhagen, Energy, George Bush, george monbiot, Naomi Klein, oil, Open Democracy, political economy, Politics, Sociology, US, USA | 40 Responses
Liveblogging Barack Obama's Copenhagen speech
By Mark Bahnisch on December 18, 2009
Helmut is live blogging President Obama’s address to the Copenhagen climate change conference at Phronesisaical.
Posted in Blogging, Climate change | Tagged barack obama, Blogging, Climate change, conference, Copenhagen, live blogging | 7 Responses
Obama Fail
By Mark Bahnisch on October 28, 2009
Writing in the always fabulous London Review of Books, David Bromwich has a very interesting argument on why Barack Obama has been something of a disappointment. Though Bromwich’s political commitments are fairly well known – at least to readers of [...]
Posted in Culture, Politics, USA | Tagged American politics, barack obama, David Bromwich, Fox news, Huffington Post, HuffPo, ideology, London Review of Books, LRB, political culture, political theory, right, US politics | 64 Responses
Words not deeds
By Mark Bahnisch on October 12, 2009
SocProf links to a really fascinating piece on Obama’s Nobel Prize [previous LP discussion here] by Don Waisanen at ThickCulture, riffing on Weber’s characterisation of modernity as disenchantment of the world. It would appear that the Nobel committee at least [...]
Posted in Culture, Imperialism, International, Politics, Sociology, USA, War | Tagged barack obama, Bush administration, disenchantment, George W. Bush, Max Weber, modernity, Nobel Peace Prize, Politics, postmodernism, postmodernity, reenchantment, rhetoric, Sociology | 11 Responses
Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize
By Mark Bahnisch on October 9, 2009
The reasoning for the award, such as it is, can be found here. It’s quite odd. I really don’t think Obama has achieved much at all internationally. Probably it’s for not being George W. Bush. There’s a paradox here. On [...]
Posted in International, Politics, USA | Tagged America, barack obama, George W. Bush, Nobel Peace Prize, United States politics | 96 Responses
Obama, healthcare and social democracy
By Mark Bahnisch on August 18, 2009
Reports that Barack Obama is prepared to concede the public option in the health care bill (with some perhaps vague hope that it might be reinserted in a conference between the House and Senate on reconciling inconsistent provisions) expose the [...]
Posted in Health, Medicine, Politics, Sociology, USA | Tagged American politics, barack obama, death panels, Democrats, health insurance, healthcare, ideology, life chances, public option, Robert Reich, social democracy, social inequality, Sociology, structural inequality, us congress | 126 Responses
Faith based community
By Mark Bahnisch on August 2, 2009
As a number of prominent Australian climate change scientists hit back at the increasing propensity of elements of the media and some politicians to engage in very high profile climate change denialism, no matter how discredited the ‘arguments’ they put [...]
Posted in Apocalypse, Blogging, Climate change, Media, Politics, Science, Sociology, USA | Tagged Australian politics, barack obama, birthers, Climate change, climate change denialism, conservatism, Guardian, John Quiggin, Media, Michael Tomasky, political culture, political psychology, Republican party, United States politics | 128 Responses
Obama's speech in Cairo – open thread
By Mark Bahnisch on June 4, 2009
I noticed a comment on Facebook that Obama’s speech at Cairo University to the Islamic world isn’t yet posted on the White House website. I checked and at the time of writing, it isn’t. But it’s up on Al Jazeera [...]
Posted in International, Middle East, Politics, Religion, Terrorism, USA, War | Tagged barack obama, Bible, Cairo, Cairo University, Islam, Middle East, Muslims, peace, Politics, Quran, Religion, Speech, Talmud, Terrorism | 119 Responses
The spectre of Specter
By Kim on May 5, 2009
Game changing. Displays the irrelevance of the GOP. Tea bag parties inspired by Fox News and all that crew coincide with a drop in partisan identification to 25% of the electorate. Etc. Certainly, the party swap of Pennsylvania Senator Arlen [...]
Posted in Feminism, Media, Politics, Polls, USA, Women | Tagged American politics, Arlen Specter, barack obama, Clarence Thomas, Democrats, Feminism, GOP, left, Pennsylvania, progressivism, Republicans, tea bag parties, USA, Women | 15 Responses
High-risk, high-reward research
By Robert Merkel on April 28, 2009
Joshua Gans notes Barack Obama’s speech at the the US National Academy of sciences, in which he proposes an increase of the US’s national R&D expenditure to 3% of GDP, amongst other initiatives. One of the many good things about [...]
Posted in Economics, Policy, Science, USA | Tagged barack obama, basic research, innovation, Science | 8 Responses
Obama's first hundred days
By Mark Bahnisch on April 27, 2009
Such is the madness of the media cycle these days that if you’re going to write about a significant event whose occurrence is predictable (say, an annniversary or a milestone), you have to get in a few days early to [...]
Posted in Books, Writers & Writing, Media, Politics, USA | Tagged barack obama, FDR, first 100 days, first hundred days, Gary Younge, Guardian, journalism, Media, Obama administration | 20 Responses
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