Hillary Clinton To Deliver Series Of Speeches Of Her Own Vision of US Policy…

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton announced Monday that she will deliver a series of policy-oriented speeches on the topics of transparency and national security and their impact on America’s leadership abroad in the “next few months.”

Speaking at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting in San Francisco, the potential 2016 presidential candidate kicked off the effort on the subject of voting rights, blasting state efforts such as that of Texas, Florida and North Carolina to restrict voting through stringent voter ID laws that passed “often under the cover of addressing the phantom epidemic of ‘voter fraud.'”

“Throughout our history we have found too many ways to exclude people from their ownership of the law,” Clinton said, delivering a plea to repair the crippled Voting Rights Act.

Clinton’s next speech is due to take place in Philadelphia next month, she said.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/hillary-clinton-to-deliver-series-of-policy-speeches

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SOS HILLARY CLINTON, headliner CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE…

 

Hillary Clinton On Smart Diplomacy And Development For The 21st Century

September 24, 2012

by Penelope Chester, reporting-

Topics: Clinton Global Initiative; Hillary Clinton;, Diplomacy, Human Rights, U.S. Politics

The Clintons took over the stage this morning at the Clinton Global Initiative. Bill introduced Hillary, who got not one, but two standing ovations from the crowd. Kicking off the day’s proceedings, Secretary of State Clinton spoke about designing diplomacy for the 21st century. Her speech was focused on how the United States can deploy smart diplomacy strategies, that work alongside development and defense, to consolidate American interests across the world.

Clinton began by mentioning that we live in times of great change. Indeed, new technologies, significant demographic shifts – both in the developing and the developed world – revolutions and democratic transitions, and a global financial crisis that has contributed to reshaping world economies are complex realities global diplomacy has to take into account. “In the face of all this change,” Clinton said, “those who care about having an impact need to think and act innovatively.” She added that we must also “be willing to change ourselves to keep pace with the change around us, and stay true to our values, or we will lose our way.” From this broad statement, she went on to speak specifically about the benefits of elevating development and incorporating it into a global engagement strategy for the United States, together with diplomacy and defense.

Secretary Clinton spoke about how the Obama administration has done just that, and how development aid is being re-thought. In the past, “we focused on urgent and immediate needs at the expense of the long term”, Clinton said. She talked about how development aid dollars used to represent a much more significant proportion of the funds that flowed into developing nations. But, today, because of the dramatic increase in capital, remittances, trade and other flows, “we have to spend dollars differently.” And indeed, development aid should be in tune with the realities of the 21st century. Clinton mentioned how it used to be the case that development dollars needed to be spent on providing food assistance, helping building schools and in other basic areas when governments weren’t able to. Nowadays, however, given how different the global picture is, it’s necessary for development dollars to be invested in smart ways, so it can be leveraged for political change and sustainable growth.

“We want to move from aid to investment,” Clinton said. “Today, with new resources, development has to fit into a more dynamic economic picture”, she added, saying that development aid should be “a catalyst for sustainable growth and progress.” Building on World Bank president Jim Kim’s remarks yesterday about how the private sector should talk to the World Bank about investment opportunities in the developing world, Clinton said that one of the roles that American development can play is to “help mitigate and reduce investment risk.” Driving the point home, Clinton said that, today, the United States is not “just providing aid to people in crisis; we’re making strategic investments.”

Clinton painted a very modern picture of what development aid should be, and how it needs to move beyond traditional aid and working with traditional NGO partners. She spoke about how development intersects with business opportunities, and how “we need the private sector to give new economies opportunities.”

Clinton then spent some time defining what she believes “country ownership” – a jargon-y development buzzword – means. She started by clarifying what country ownership doesn’t mean: “it doesn’t mean that donors are supposed to keep money flowing while recipients decide how to spend it; it doesn’t mean shutting out the voices of civil society and faith-based groups; it doesn’t mean not letting beneficiaries do everything on their own.”

For Clinton, country ownership means that development should be “lead, implemented and increasingly paid for by government, civil society and other groups.” It means that developing countries need to “set priorities, manage resources, develop their own plans and carry them out.” She also mentioned that, in her view, country ownership means that “the whole country – men and women” are involved. “When more women enter the workforce, it spurs innovation and grows the economy – in short, everyone benefits.”

In the part of her remarks that sounded the most like a campaign speech, Clinton listed some of the development and diplomacy accomplishments of the Obama administration which further the goals detailed above: the ambitious reform of USAID under Raj Shah, the Feed the Future initiative, the development of “groundbreaking renewable energy investment vehicles” in Africa, public-private partnerships such as the Clean Cookstove Initiative. “But there is still a lot of work to do, and this is where you come in”, the Secretary of State said, speaking directly to the audience – one of her husband’s favorite rhetorical devices.

Clinton spoke of the need of development policy to invest more deeply in a broader range of partners, beyond traditional international NGOs. She spoke of the need to broaden and increase our network of partnerships to advance our work in development. “Let’s start viewing all of our separate efforts as a portfolio of complimentary investments,” Clinton exhorted, “let’s redouble our commitment to multi-partner approaches that bring all of us together.”Her speech then shifted to a more classic political speech – mentioning the need for the United States to advance freedom, rights and dignity across the world, the rejection of violence and underscoring American efforts in supporting democratic transitions in the Middle East. “We need your help and leadership”, Clinton told the audience, to spread development, dignity and freedom.

This is an important forum for Hillary Clinton to address – indeed, some of the world’s most powerful business, NGO and political leaders gather at the Clinton Global Initiative every year to discuss and explore partnership opportunities, something which is frankly only possible when Bill Clinton brings all these stakeholders together for meaningful engagement. The Secretary of State’s speech made clear that the United States and Americans need to rethink their approach to development aid: multisectoral, investment-based and results-oriented with the ultimate objectives of sustainability and long-term growth. While many of the people at the Clinton Global Initiative already know this, Hillary Clinton’s speech served to give these efforts broader meaning in the context of American foreign policy and the advancement of American goals and interests worldwide.

Photo credit: Clinton Global Initiative

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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to Receive Transparency International-USA’s Integrity Award

Notice to the Press
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
March 21, 2012

On March 22, Secretary Clinton will receive Transparency International-USA’s Integrity Award. Transparency International-USA (TI-USA) is an international leader in anti-corruption advocacy in government, business, and development assistance. TI-USA’s Integrity Award recognizes Secretary Clinton’s efforts to promote transparency and integrity around the world. The event will begin at approximately 7:30 p.m.

Secretary Clinton will be honored for her leadership in drawing action and attention to the damaging effects of corruption in developed and developing countries. During her tenure, Secretary Clinton has elevated corruption as a major focus of U.S. foreign policy. She also has promoted the importance of international anti-corruption agreements, including the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and the U.N. Convention against Corruption, and has worked with the OECD, G8, G20 and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation to combat corruption and promote transparency and accountability.

The remarks will be open to the press.

Pre-set time for cameras: 6:00 p.m. from the Grand Ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel.

Final access time for journalists and still photographers 7:30 p.m. the Grand Ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel.

Media representatives may attend this event upon presentation of one of the following: (1) A U.S. Government-issued identification card (Department of State, White House, Congress, Department of Defense or Foreign Press Center), (2) a media-issued photo identification card, or (3) a letter from their employer on letterhead verifying their employment as a journalist, accompanied by an official photo identification card (driver’s license, passport).

For further information, please contact Laura Taylor at laura@gaiagroupdc.com or (202) 271 8216, or Office of Press Relations, U.S. Department of State, (202) 647-2492.

Hillary should be the democratic nominee… Obama should Opt-Out..

If Americans in their infinite wisdom choose to keep a Democrat in the White House through 2016, let it be Hillary Clinton.

Increasingly the question of whether President Obama should be challenged for the 2012 nomination is surfacing among disgruntled Democrats worried about a solid Republican victory next fall.

They’re right to be concerned: the crises facing the United States and the world deserve better than Obama’s oldest established permanent floating re-election campaign.

There’s no doubt Clinton’s tireless and often effective performance as secretary of state demonstrates she would bring more seasoned judgment to the Oval Office than its current resident. Here are a just a few reasons the Democratic Party should bite the bullet and jettison the nation’s one-term Senate orator and try to elect the nation’s first woman president.

Beginning with the political dimension of his conduct of the war in Afghanistan to class war at home, Obama’s priorities seem to be governed more by his re-election timetable than the demands of the national interest and reflective responses to the galloping changes in the global order

Contrary to mainstream opinion, Obama is a mediocre politician. Were it not so, surely he would have known that people get wise to polished repetitive, but empty speeches — and know the difference between bread and butter now and pie in the sky later.

Joblessness and fear of watching retirement savings vanish weigh heavier on the nation’s collective mind than long-range climate change and health care reform. The president’s touted political instincts should have told him all that. But, as James Carville once noted so cogently, “It’s the economy, stupid!”

But while Obama talked jobs and initiated a jobs bill on his sixth day in office, almost all of his mind and determination remained focused on health care — his overriding priority.

There is more. Even a short and substantively fruitless effort in spring 2009 to get agreement on a new U.N. climate change protocol outranked jobs at home on Obama’s must-do list.

Health care came first, no matter what. The president spent a year getting it on the books, while he assured the country that his close to trillion-dollar economic stimulus program was creating jobs.

He lost no time proclaiming the recession over — blind and deaf to the reality that it was a “jobless recovery.” He saw the upticking Gross National Product statistics and forgot or never understood they reflected only record earnings of financial institutions.

Hillary Clinton with her wealth of experience as first lady, a two-term senator from New York and now the world’s leading diplomat would hardly have been so blind.

Obama’s economic stimulus was a bust because, among his many other blunders, he left the writing of the legislation to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in their veto-proof Congress — without benefit of Republican input. As a result, Congress presented him with a Christmas tree adorned with pork barrels, but bare of jobs with a future.

. Her party — and her country — badly need her services. She’s likely the only potential winner the Democrats can muster.

Bogdan Kipling is a Canadian journalist in Washington.

Hillary Clinton: If we want to give peace a chance, we have some work to do-

Pakistan put on notice

 

An exclusive session: Hillary Clinton with Pakistani civil society

The Clinton doctrine on economic statecraft: Clinton to urge U.S. diplomats to put economics at top of foreign policy agenda

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi Sept. 26, 2011. (David Karp/AP)

There is no shortage of players jostling for turf on the complex matter of Chinese currency valuations. Witness Senate Democrats’ vow to take up legislation this week that could sanction China for allegedly undervaluing the yuan–at the cost, according to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), of American jobs.

As a practical matter, the delicate work of managing relations with China–the leading creditor of the United States–falls only in part to America’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But if she has her way, she’d have more of a say.

If the fight against terrorism dominated American foreign policy in the decade after 9/11, the decade ahead could well be defined by efforts to manage the U.S. role in the global economy.

And in many ways, Hillary Clinton’s diplomatic portfolio is increasingly dominated by global economic challenges. Trade issues obviously have a direct impact on America’s efforts to emerge from the present economic downturn–from the battles over the national debt to the need to stimulate job growth. But economic issues also shape other less-noted features of the American foreign-policy agenda, be it the effort to contain fallout from Europe’s debt crisis, to managing the rise of G20 economic powers such as Brazil, Turkey and India—all of whom come bearing their own foreign policy ambitions. As a result, diplomats say, economic and foreign policy are growing ever more intertwined.

“The trading floor is increasingly replacing the battlefield as the forum for state contacts,” according to one of Clinton’s State Department advisers, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as to describe the department’s economic plans more broadly.

So Hillary Clinton has been working hard to beef up the economic bench strength of the State Department, while also mounting a bid for State officials to play a more decisive role in determining U.S. global economics policy. Aides expect her to lay out what they are calling the “Clinton doctrine on economic statecraft” early this month, likely in a speech in New York. Timing and venue for the address are still being worked out, her aides say.

“This is coming from a sense that we are seeing the lines between national security and economic security blur as emerging powers are doing more to advance their economic power, and fitting their national security strategy more around economic interest,” the State Department adviser told The Envoy Friday.

A key precept in this effort is addressing a kind of cultural lag in the antiquated world of bureaucratic Washington. Lead policy makers may recognize the pivotal role that economics plays in global diplomacy–but in many ways, the diplomatic bureaucracy needs to catch up. Clinton’s planned speech is in large part a call to her own agency’s ambassadors, diplomatic staff and analysts to shift their thinking.

And as Secretary Clinton lays out that vision in more detail, she will stress two main bulwarks, aides say. First, she will highlight the need to advance relations with the wider world as part of the effort to revive the American domestic economic order. And second, she will stress that State Department diplomats and foreign policy thinkers need to work harder to understand how market forces are driving first-order national security challenges in hot spots such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran.

Clinton’s strong interest in global economics issues is hardly a secret. She has denied persistent rumors that she has her eye on the World Bank chief job when Robert Zoellick’s tenure ends next fall.

But such Beltway speculation aside, it’s hard not to notice the many ways that Clinton has started to sound like a World Bank or Treasury official as she holds down her present job at the State Department. And she’s managing the department with a clear eye toward bulking up its economics portfolio.

Clinton has made several recent hires in her corps of advisers, with backgrounds in economics and finance. She has launched a new energy security bureau–headed by special envoy/coordinator Carlos Pascual, the former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, aided by new deputy assistant secretary Amos Hochstein. She’s brought on a deputy secretary of state for management and budgets from Wall Street (Morgan Stanley’s Tom Nides). And she has been pushing for the State Department to work prominently in framing American economic policy objectives more broadly. That means, in part, elbowing State’s way into inter-agency discussions on U.S. international economic policy-making. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Clinton are at the heart of this scrum; Clinton’s aide won’t handicap her chance of winning–these are diplomats, remember?–but the aide stressed that she’s taking the long view.

In her in-house think tank, State Department policy planning chief Jake Sullivan, and senior adviser Jennifer Harris, a lawyer and economist who worked on the intelligence community’s Global Trends 2025 report (pdf), have been among the key thinkers helping Clinton flesh out her approach to economic statecraft. Sullivan and Harris arranged a “deep dive” on the issue for Clinton back in February.

Clinton explained the logic behind the new economic initiatives recently in Hong Kong.

“As we pursue recovery and growth, we are making economics a priority of our foreign policy,” Clinton said at the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Shangri La conference in Hong Kong in July. “Because increasingly, economic progress depends on strong diplomatic ties and diplomatic progress depends on strong economic ties. And so the United States is working to harness all aspects of our relationships with other countries to support our mutual growth.”

“All of us here today recognize that a strong economy at home is vital to America’s leadership in the world,” Clinton similarly told the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition conference in July, before sounding a retrospective note about her tenure at State. “After spending two and a half years as your Secretary of State, traveling nearly 600,000 miles, I have reached one overarching conclusion: Simply put, we need to up our game.”

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/clinton-doctrine-economic-statecraft-clinton-moves-put-economics-110046068.html

Clinton: ‘We’re Going To Weather This Crisis’

8/12/11
“I’m confident that we’re going to weather this crisis, and not just our own country, because I think that we have very strong reasons to be confident, but I think also, our partners around the world, most particularly in Europe,” she told CBS Evening News.

QUESTION: Thank you, Madam Secretary. You are in close coordination with all of the European Union countries, and I wonder how much confidence you have that the European nations are going to be able to create a soft landing for their debt crisis that doesn’t wreck the economy here in the United States?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, Scott, I think it’s very clear that the global economy has made us even more interdependent, and we’ve seen that in so many ways over the last three years. We are certainly supporting what the Europeans are trying to do. Our Treasury Secretary and other officials are in constant communication with their counterparts. Obviously, the President has spoken with his, and I’ve spoken with mine. And this is a very challenging economic time for many of us, but I believe that we’ll see actions taken that will provide the so-called soft landing that you’re talking about.

And I think we do have to all pay more attention to how we’re going to create jobs in the so-called developed world that are going to be available for the vast majority of middle-income and lower-income men and women, who are being basically marginalized in the way the global economy is growing.

more details at link:

Link
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Hillary Clinton Asks Tougher Sanctions Against Assad Regime-
Urges Further Sanctions as Syrian Violence Continues

Activists and witnesses say Syrian security forces shot and killed at least 19 people across the country on Friday during anti-government protests. The reports say protesters were killed in at least six Syrian cities, including Hama, Homs and Aleppo, as well as the suburbs of Damascus.

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have intensified their violent suppression of opposition protests during the past week, despite growing international condemnation.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged countries giving Syria economic and political support to “get on the right side of history.” She also called on countries to stop buying Syrian oil and gas.

Clinton says she is continuing diplomatic talks aimed at putting political pressure on Mr. Assad’s government. She again insisted the Syrian president has “lost the legitimacy to lead,” but still stopped short of calling for Mr. Assad to step down, saying that calls for his removal should be part of an international effort.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Abdullah Gul called on Mr. Assad to implement reforms before it is too “late.” Turkish media reports relayed Mr. Gul’s comments on Friday.

The Syrian government has defended its crackdown, saying it is combating armed gangs and terrorists. On Friday, state-run news reports said “armed groups” with “snipers” had opened fire “randomly” in a Damascus suburb and two other areas, killing three law enforcement officers and two civilians.

Rights groups say more than 1,700 people have been killed in Syria’s crackdown.

Details of events in Syria are difficult to independently verify because the government allows very few foreign news reporters into the country and restricts their movements.
Link

Oprah’s decline began with backstabbing Hillary Clinton…

 

Hillary v. Oprah — Oprah won the battle, but Hillary won the war

She who laughs last, laughs best. Oprah helped Obama win the Presidency over Hillary in 2008. But now Oprah's show is finished -- while Hillary is still rising. Flanked by George Mitchell after Obama spoke at the State Department on May 19, 2011 Credit: Getty Images

Looking happier than ever. Hillary is now the most accomplished woman in the history of American politics. Walking with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in London, May 25, 2011. Credit: Getty Images

Oprah went off the air this week with much fanfare. The hoopla — though annoying to some — was well-earned. Oprah’s rise from a dirt poor and abusive childhood to the most powerful woman in the entertainment biz epitomizes the American Dream. She has mothered millions and changed lives with her philanthropy.

Truly, Oprah Winfrey is a woman to celebrate. That’s why it’s especially sad that her lapse of judgment in 2008 ran her off the air so quickly. Oprah endorsed Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in 2008. Women – especially the middle class white women who formed her core audience – felt betrayed.

Oprah had never forayed into politics before – and her first foray was to kneecap Hillary Clinton, a hero for middle and working class women. Some have suggested that Oprah’s endorsement put Obama over the top; he would not be President without her, which is a testament to her power.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans and Clinton Democrats were not impressed. In the wake of helping Obama win the White House, Oprah saw her favorability ratings and the ratings for her once-dominant television show drop.

No doubt Oprah saw the writing on wall and decided to end her show before the bottom fell completely out. It did not have to be this way. But Oprah’s disgraceful dismissal of Hillary’s candidacy and consequent demise ranks as yet another example of the curious series of downfalls now afflicting so many 2008 Hillary backstabbers.

Oprah may be the most powerful woman in American entertainment — but Hillary Rodham Clinton is still the most powerful and admired woman in the world.

http://www.examiner.com/post-partisan-in-national/hillary-v-oprah-oprah-won-the-battle-but-hillary-won-the-war-picture#slide=33738011

Hillary, a confident, radiant representative of the US of A…

“Budget cuts would harm US in Mideast- Our progress is significant, but our work is ongoing. These missions are vital to our national security, … and now would be the wrong time to pull back. Clinton added”

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday warned Republicans to reverse plans to cut the US foreign aid budget or undermine US efforts to stabilize a North Africa and Middle East in turmoil.

Clinton also told Republican lawmakers that their proposed cuts for 2012 would hurt US efforts to roll back the insurgency in Afghanistan, build a stable, democratic Iraq and contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

She highlighted how US diplomacy and the US Agency for International Development are helping to advance US national interests by seeking to end the bloodshed and help civilians in Libya, a major oil producer.

“This is an unfolding example of how we use the combined assets ….of diplomacy, development, and defense to protect American security and interests and advance our values,” Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“It is the most effective — and cost-effective — way to sustain and advance our security across the world. And it is only possible with a budget that supports all the tools in our national security arsenal,” she said.

In Iraq, Clinton said, US diplomats and civilian experts are “poised to keep the peace” after the withdrawal of nearly US 100,000 troops, who cost the United States much more to deploy than civilians.

In Afghanistan, a recent surge in US troops and civilians is paving the way “for our diplomatic surge to support Afghan-led reconciliation that could end the conflict and put Al-Qaeda on the run,” the chief US diplomat said.

“We have imposed the toughest sanctions to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” she added.

“And we are working to open political systems, economies, and societies at a remarkable moment in the history of the Middle East and to support peaceful, orderly, irreversible democratic transitions in Egypt and Tunisia,” she said.

“Our progress is significant, but our work is ongoing. These missions are vital to our national security, … and now would be the wrong time to pull back,” Clinton added.

Secretary Clinton: Assessing US Foreign Policy Priorities