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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Exclusive: Clinton returning to work next week

Thursday, December 27, 2012 – 5:06 PM

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will return to the State Department next week after three weeks of recovery from a stomach virus and a related concussion, The Cable has confirmed.

Clinton’s ongoing recovery will still prevent her from flying abroad, but will allow plans to move forward for her to testify in open hearing on the Sept. 11 attack on Benghazi, testimony that she was unable to give — as per her doctor’s orders — on Dec. 20. Her return to a public schedule could also end the weeks of conspiracy theorizing and wild speculation about whether or not she was faking or misrepresenting her illness to avoid testifying.

“The secretary continues to recuperate at home. She had long planned to take this holiday week off, so she had no work schedule. She looks forward to getting back to the office next week and resuming her schedule,” Clinton aide Philippe Reines told The Cable.

Reines declined to say whether Clinton was at her Washington home or her house in Chappaqua, New York, but he said she did spend the holidays with her family. There’s no definite schedule for her Benghazi testimony, but she has pledged to appear before both House and Senate foreign relations committees in January.

Since Dec. 9, when Clinton’s stomach illness was first disclosed as the reason she pulled out of a planned trip to the Middle East and North Africa, a torrent of conservative pundits and media outlets have suggested or outright accused her of avoiding the public eye. Insinuations that Clinton was faking or exacerbating her illness to avoid the Benghazi issue came from the Weekly Standard, the New York Post, the Daily Caller, hosts on Fox News’s evening shows, Rep. Allen West (R-FL), the conservative website Pajamas Media, the Investors’ Business Daily website, conservative blogger Lucianne Goldberg, and others.

The National Enquirer actually claimed that Clinton was suffering from brain cancer. “Considering the source I can’t believe we even have to say this. But it’s absolute nonsense,” Reines said.

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton became the highest-ranking former government official to publicly accuse Clinton of faking her illness on Dec. 18.

“Every Foreign Service officer in every foreign ministry in the world knows the phrase that I’m about to use. When you don’t want to go to a meeting or a conference or an event, you have a ‘diplomatic illness.’ And this is a diplomatic illness to beat the band,” Bolton said.

“I certainly hope it’s nothing serious, but this was revealed in a way that I think that was not transparent, and I think there is an obligation here, especially if Secretary Clinton decides to run for president, to indicate what happened,” Bolton said. “She may beat testifying this week, but she’s not going to escape it forever.”

Bolton’s accusation came three days after Clinton’s doctors, Lisa Bardack of the Mt. Kisco Medical Group and Gigi El-Bayoumi of the George Washington University, issued a detailed statement about the secretary’s injuries.

“Secretary Clinton developed a stomach virus, leading to extreme dehydration, and subsequently fainted. Over the course of this week we evaluated her and ultimately determined she had also sustained a concussion. We recommended that the Secretary continue to rest and avoid any strenuous activity, and strongly advised her to cancel all work events for the coming week,” they said.

But Bolton accused Clinton of a pattern of avoiding the public that predated her illness and concussion. “The secretary has stayed out of the limelight ever since the attack of Sept. 11,” he said.

In fact, Clinton held 14 press availabilities and gave nine separate press interviews between Sept. 12 and Dec. 7, when she fell ill. She also briefed the full House and the full Senate Sept. 20 on Benghazi.

In an e-mail to The Cable Thursday, Bolton explained that his comments on Clinton’s illness were meant to highlight the administration’s lack of openness about her medical condition.

“A fair listener would understand that my central point was the lack of transparency about her status,” Bolton said. “Such a lack of transparency cannot be sustained in a presidential campaign, for example, where observers might infer that her condition was worse than it actually was. That’s what I said, fair and balanced.”

In addition to the Dec. 15 doctor’s statement, the State Department has issued four separate statements on Clinton’s health, on Dec. 9, 10, 15 and 19. Thursday’s statement to The Cable marks the fifth time Clinton’s representatives have spoken on the record about her progress outside of the State Department briefing room. In a background quote to ABC news Dec. 17, a U.S. official went into even more detail.

“According to the official, the secretary had two teams of doctors, including specialists, examine her. They also ran tests to rule out more serious ailments beyond the virus and the concussion. During the course of the week, Clinton was on an IV drip and being monitored by a nurse, while also recovering from the pain caused by the fall,” ABC reported.

Top GOP lawmakers have rallied to Clinton’s defense. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told The Cable that he believes Clinton has been honest and forthright about her medical condition.

“I have no doubts that Secretary Clinton has been ill and suffered a concussion. I know she will testify and statements to the contrary are misplaced,” said Graham.

In a press conference last week, Graham said he wants Clinton to testify on Benghazi before she steps down from office, but reiterated that her illness was real and serious.

“To those who suggest that she’s dodging her responsibilities because she’s not sick, I think that’s inappropriate and not true,” Graham said. “I know she’s sick now. I know she is not appearing because she really is ill.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) acknowledged the veracity of Clinton’s illness at her Dec. 20 hearing and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) also backed Clinton up in a Dec. 19 Fox News appearance.

“I must say, I have never seen Secretary Clinton back down from a fight. And I have never seen her back down. And I believe that she is now not physically well enough to testify and she will testify the middle of January,” he said.

Outrage over the charge that Clinton has been misleading the American public about her illness extends well past Washington. The NFL Players Association, apparently concerned about the seeming trivialization of similar injuries, felt compelled to weigh in and admonish those who would downplay the secretary’s ordeal.

“A concussion is a serious injury that should not be discounted or belittled for political purposes,” NFLPA Assistant Executive Director George Atallah said in a statement. “The Players Association has worked tirelessly not only to address this problem at the professional level, but to educate the general public about the risks to youths playing sports of all kinds. Efforts to raise awareness and teach prevention are undermined whenever someone dismisses the impact of a concussion. We must set a better example consistent with what we know to be the medical truth.”

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/12/27/exclusive_clinton_returning_to_work_next_week

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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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.

video: BILL and HILLARY CLINTON take a walkabout in downtown Manhattan..

http://videos.oneindia.in/watch/45938/bill-hillary-clinton-walk-york-city.html

You will have to copy and paste in your web address box.. Vodpod does not accept the link as workable…

Happy 65th Birthday, Bill Clinton!

August 19th, 2011

President Bill Clinton, The Champ! baby pic

The 42nd President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton, celebrates his birthday today. The Big Dawg is now 65. Happy birthday, Bubba!

William Jefferson Clinton, the pride of Hope, Ark., remains the only Democrat to win two full White House terms since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

He also presided over the largest peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history, and left office extremely popular despite being impeached.

Hey, no one’s perfect, right?

His wife, Hillary Clinton, is currently U.S. Secretary of State. Their daughter, Chelsea, married Marc Mezvinsky last summer in New York State.

In a political flip-flop of Mitt Romney-esque proportions, Bill Clinton is marking his 65th birthday by going vegan. Seriously. No more burgers!

What a difference a quadruple bypass makes. “I like the vegetables, the fruits, the beans, the stuff I eat now,” the ex-President tells CNN.

After experiencing heart problems leading up to the 2004 surgery, Clinton has now lost 20 lbs.: “I feel good, and I have so much more energy.”

Glad to hear. Have a veggie burger on us tonight, BC!

Clinton vows to pay off Women’s World Cup bet with Japan’s Foreign Minister…

BALI, Indonesia (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is lamenting America’s loss to Japan in the Women’s World Cup final, but congratulating the Japanese team on its victory and vowing to pay off a bet she made on the match with Japan’s foreign minister.

Meeting with her Japanese and South Korean counterparts on the sidelines of an Asian security conference in Bali, Indonesia, on Saturday, Clinton applauded Japan’s “hard fought victory” in last week’s finale, which she called a “great game.” “We were not happy with the result but we were very impressed by the Japanese team,” she said.

Clinton then said she would make good on her bet, which she noted had cost her “some very good New York apples.” Japan’s foreign minister had staked Japanese pears.

Chelsea Clinton’s July 31 Wedding at Opulent Astor Courts-

Astor Courts selected for it's beauty and simplicity.

The closely held details of Chelsea Clinton’s wedding have begun to leak out, and the first major morsel may well be the venue.

The Bride and Groom

She will marry investment banker Marc Mezvinksy, 31, at Astor Courts, a Beaux-Arts masterpiece overlooking the Hudson River designed in 1902 by famed architect Stanford White for American oligarch John Jacob Astor IV. From the outside, it evokes Louis XIV’s Grand Trianon at Versailles. And inside? It’s straight out of an Edith Wharton novel.

Astor Courts, overlooking a spectacular view of the Hudson River

Speculation about everything from Chelsea’s wedding gown (Vera Wang? Oscar de la Renta?) to the officiant (a Protestant minister? A rabbi? Both? Neither? ) to the honeymoon destination (still a secret) have been swirling around the publicity-shy only child of former president Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for months.

Trois Clintons-Un Bush

Never mind that the bride’s publicist, members of her mother’s inner circle, the Boston wedding planner and the owners of the 50-acre estate on the outskirts of Rhinebeck, N.Y., have zipped their lips about all aspects of the celebration. The venue story first broke in the Hudson Valley News on Thursday, based on a unauthorized tip from a local resident. The July 31 guest list is said to be a nice, round 400, with each invitee personally known to the bride, reports New York magazine.

Now 30 and a Columbia University graduate student in public health, Chelsea will marry a man she’s known since she was a teenager living in the White House and attending Washington’s swank, private Sidwell Friends School. Both were at Stanford University, but the romance did not escalate until the past few years. He is the son of two former Democratic members of Congress: Marjorie Margolies of Pennsylvania, defeated after a single term in 1994 for backing President Clinton’s budget, and her ex-husband, Edward Mezvinsky of Iowa, who served two terms in the House in the 1970s, and was later sentenced to seven years in prison for masterminding $10 million in fraud schemes; he was freed in 2008 and remains on parole.

The nuptial couple announced their engagement just after Thanksgiving via e-mail, following numerous false reports they would marry last summer on Martha’s Vineyard.

Astor Courts, two hours north of New York City, is easy to reach by train or car, and elegant enough to provide a picture-perfect wedding backdrop while sufficiently secluded to offer security and privacy for the high-level guests, said to include foreign dignitaries, top U.S. officials and boldface names from the social, financial, entertainment and political worlds.

Built as a sporting pavilion at the turn of the last century, this onetime playground for American aristocrats — think indoor clay tennis court and Moorish-style enclosed swimming pool — is now home to Hillary Clinton supporters Kathleen Hammer, a former Oxygen Media producer, and developer-businessman Arthur Seelbinder. The couple spent three years restoring the decrepit wreck, guided by architect Samuel White, a great-grandson of Stanford White. Celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz lives down the road.

Although there has been speculation that the festivities will take place under a tent for added privacy — who wants paparazzi shooting pictures from the other shore? — the building’s ornate 2,100-square-foot main hall, which looks like a Gilded Age ballroom, might work nicely for the ceremony.

What more could a 21st-century bride want?

If you have an interest in learning more about the journey of Kathleen Hammer and husband, Arthur Seelbinder’s restoration project… Astor Courts… click on the link-