واشنگتن دی.سی-

سی سال بعد از به دست گیری زمام توسط انقلاب اسلامی، هفته گذشته جمعی از متخصصان امور ایارن در موسسه امریکن انترپرایز که موسسه ای تحقیقاتی محافظه کار در واشنگتن محسوب می شود، گردهم آمدند تا به ارزیابی حکومت مقتدر درتهران پرداخته و آینده رابطه ایران و آمریکا را بررسی کنند.
تصویر فعلی حکومتی پراگماتیک را ترسیم می کند که از ارزشهای اصیل ایدئولوژیک خود فاصله گرفته است و سیاست گرا شده است حال آنکه همچنان در دست ملبسان به لباس شریعت است. نظامی سیاسی است که در عین مواجهه با مشکلات اقتصادی همچنان در مسیر توسعه نظامی گام برمی دارد. این کشور بنا به ادعای موسسه امریکن انترپرایز برلبه فروپاشی کامل است درحالیکه در داخل نیز به دلیل انزوای بین المللی مورد انتقاد شدید است.

Washington D.C. – A rapidly shrinking, aging and increasingly expensive American military, which is unequipped to carry out real-life combat missions, is the worrying scenario presented in “America’s Defense Meltdown,” a recently published book that contains the results of a survey of the U.S. armed forces conducted by thirteen Pentagon insiders. Winslow Wheeler, Thomas Christie and Pierre Sprey, three of the authors, discussed the decades-long, and continuing, deterioration of America’s defenses at a book launch organized in Washington D.C. by five not-for-profit organizations active in defense-related issues: The Fund for Constitutional Government, the Center for Defense Information (CDI), the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), Taxpayers for Common Sense and the Institute for Policy Studies.

According to official data from the Department of Defense (DoD), the U.S. military budget (in inflation-adjusted dollars) is higher today than it was during the wars in Korea and Vietnam and during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, which was heavy on defense spending. Today, the U.S. military budget approximates that of the rest of the world, noted Winslow Wheeler, and it is about three times as large as those of China, Russia, Cuba, Iran and North Korea combined – America’s potential short and long-term enemies. However, in terms of the size of forces, numbers are down from the past, even considering Iraq and Afghanistan. This is true for Army divisions, Navy combatant ships, and Air Force tactical wings; despite steady growth, figures suggest, the defense budget is capable of buying only a decreasing number of weapons systems. As a result, the forces are aging. While in the 1980s the average age of an American fighter aircraft was around 10 years, today it is between 15 and 20 years, and growing.  

Thomas Christie, who has five decades of experience in defense acquisition, weapon testing and program evaluation, and who retired as the Pentagon’s most senior career civilian official in 2005, depicted a fouled DoD planning and budget process based on a series of flawed assumptions. For example, one assumption has been that future budgets will grow at a faster rate than the past or that weapon system procurement costs will decrease in the future. These constant misinterpretations of budget cycles lead, according to Christie, to the approval of programs that are unattainable in reality, with subsequent delays and ballooning costs. As a result, for example, the Air Force ended up with a dwindling fighter force because it banked on a higher modernization line than what it could have reasonably expected. According to Christie the problem is not in the acquisition process per se, but rather in the way defense managers have been using it. “We have had enough acquisition reform; we need no more acquisition reform. We need to take this process we have and make it work better,” Christie argued.

Washington Prism

Washington D.C. – If Barack Obama’s rise to become the 44th President of the United States was meant to prove that “a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth,” as the President himself notably pronounced in his victory speech of November 4th, the crowd gathered in Washington D.C. for his inauguration was a testimony to just how much the American people have come to believe in his promise.
In front of an emotional crowd of excited spectators – estimated in well over a million people -- President Obama took his oath of office Tuesday, on the steps of the Capitol, laying his left hand on the same bible that Abraham Lincoln – the man who pushed for the abolition of slavery – used in 1861. Leaders of the House and the Senate sat behind him, alongside the new President’s family, former President George W. Bush with Mrs. Laura Bush, and a variety of celebrities of different ilk. Aretha Franklin sang, Yo-Yo Ma the famed cellist performed, and the Reverend Rick Warren gave a heartfelt invocation. President Obama avoided soaring rhetoric and chose a somber tone for his inaugural address, dedicated to calling the nation to serve and “to begin again the work of remaking America.”
The ceremony was not dissimilar to inaugurations past, but instead the day was made special by the presence of citizens of all ages and race, who had traveled to Washington D.C. from all over the country. They laughed, they cried, they waved tiny American flags in the air, and they braved many discomforts to seize their own piece of history as the first African-American president was sworn into office.

Washington Prism

Chicago, Illinois – The improbable political journey of Barack Obama, son of a man from Kenya and a woman from Kansas, began in the far South Side of Chicago, in the mid-1980s. Obama came to Altgeld Garden from New York City to work as a community organizer – a fact the junior Senator from Illinois often liked to quote during his long presidential campaign. In this forgotten project ridden with unemployment and crime, he helped set up a job training program and a tenants' rights organization.

Altgeld Garden comprises a few blocks of modest single-family homes and low-rise apartment buildings at the southern edge of Chicago, a public housing development stuck on the side of Bishop Ford Freeway. A solitary enclave separated from the rest of the city by Lake Calumet to the East, railway tracks to the North, and major thoroughfares all around, Altgeld Garden remains a place where outsiders don’t like to visit and even the police rarely ventures into. “We haven’t seen a taxi here in thirty years,” said resident Derrick White pointing to the few yellow cabs parked on East 131st Street on Election Day. Those taxis drove here curious journalists – most of them foreign and the only non-African Americans around.

Despite high unemployment, health issues related to air pollution caused by industries nearby, and another automobile plant -- a Ford factory -- soon to shut down, on Election Day the mood in Altgeld Garden was joyful. A burgundy-colored Toyota SUV parked by the curb played loud hip-hop music as a group of young people chatted loudly about the election, looking almost like they were waiting for “one of their own” to be elected President of the United States.

Mr. White, a man in his forties wearing black sweat pants an old white t-shirt and a black bandana on his head, works as a custodian at a nearby high school and is active in the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union.

He remembers Obama only after Obama’s campaign for the U.S. Senate of 2004, during which White worked the polls for him. Surprisingly, many residents here don’t seem to recall much of the years when Obama was a member of the Illinois Legislature, let alone the Senator’s history prior to that. “I thought from the start that he was a very intelligent man,” White claimed, “but I didn’t think he was going to come this far this quickly.” He hopes that President Obama will fix the economy and heal the racial wounds that have plagued this country since its founding: “There are no jobs here, people don’t have health-care. You should go to the county hospital, they started charging for service,” he explained. 

واشنگتن پریزم

شیکاگو، ایلینویز- خورشید درحال درخشیدن در آسمان شیکاگو است. دمای هوا درحدود 70 درجه فارنهایت است و به گونه ای که این روز را به گرمترین روز انتخاباتی برای مردم شیکاگو از 1964 تا کنون تبدیل کرده است.

رانندگان اتوموبیلهای روباز(کروکی) سقف اتوموبیلها را بازکرده اند و همانگونه که از هوای دلپذیر صبحگاهی لذت می برند، با سیل عظیمی از مردم که درحاشیه دریاچه میشیگان می دوند، مواجه می شوند.

از همان ابتدای صبح صفهای به هم تنیده مردم دراین ایالت دموکرات قابل مشاهده است. جایی که مقر اصلی دموکراتها محسوب می شود ومردم رای های خود را برای باراک اوباما به صندوق می ریزند.

Washington Prism

Chicago, Illinois – The sun is shining in Chicago today and with temperatures in the 70s this could be the warmest Election Day since 1964. With the tops down, drivers took their convertibles out for a ride in the morning and are driving around town while an endless stream of runners jog along Lake Michigan on the eastern edge of the city.

Chicago residents are also flocking to polling places and voting operations seem to be running smoothly in spite of the high turnout.

Even during early morning rush hour, lines were kept under control with waiting times that never exceeded the one-hour mark. In this democratic stronghold most voters are casting their ballots for Barack Obama.

There is anticipation in the air and the city waits impatiently for tonight’s returns. “I voted for Obama,” says Paul Walker, “If it had taken seven hours, it wouldn’t matter; I’d still be in line. I hope he wins.” While this service industry worker speaks, a woman passes him by and shouts, “Obama! He’s the only one.”

Keep Virginia Red

Washington Prism

Woodbridge, VA – Lodged in a non-descript strip-mall in suburban Virginia, L & B Pizzeria and Sports Bar was in full capacity on Wednesday night prior to the final presidential debate between candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. By 8 P.M., as other businesses were closing down L & B remained the only speck of light overlooking an otherwise deserted parking lot.

The Republican Committee of Prince William County was having a watch party for the last Presidential debate between the two candidates and, from early on, republican supporters from the neighborhood flocked to this Italian-American pizzeria. They bought memorabilia from the McCain/Palin campaign and took their seats at one of the light wooden booths; blue and red balloons reached up to the ceiling.

The nearly 50-odd people aged fifty and above, were on a mission -- cheering on the GOP Presidential hopeful to the slogan: “Keep Virginia Red.” Prince William County went for President George W. Bush in 2004 -- fifty-three percent to forty-five percent -- over Democratic candidate John Kerry. However this year, together with Loudon County, Prince William is one of few key districts in play, which could help the Democrats carry this unexpected swing state

Washington Prism

Washington DC – Recent demographic trends in America seem to point to a realignment of the country along more liberal lines and, hence, should carry Democrats to a victory in the November general elections. Those constituencies who generally vote democratic are growing across the country, and particularly in the most highly contested states, while the pool of traditional republican voters is shrinking.

These, at least, are the findings of a recently released study, “The Political Geography of America’s Purple States,” that William Frey and Ruy Teixeira, of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, and James Barnes, political correspondent for the National Journal, discussed at an event hosted by the National Press Club in Washington DC.

While democrats struggle with the general white working class, they have been performing increasingly better with those white workers that have a college degree. In 1988, the margin the Democrats had over the Republicans with white college graduates was only 1 point. In 2004 it increased to 17 points. Moreover, and to the benefit of the Democrats, white college graduates are becoming an increasing share of the electorate.

Washington Prism

St Louis, MO – As Democrat Joe Biden battled Republican Sarah Palin Thursday night at Washington University in the only Vice-Presidential debate, many St Louis residents watched the face-off from the comfort of their living rooms, at a variety of private parties, and at a public viewing organized by small liberal arts college Webster University in the nearby town of Webster Groves.

A crowd of about one hundred students, alumni, and staff congregated at Webster student center.

Former Missouri Governor Bob Holden, a Democrat who is now the director of the college’s public affairs forum, organized a free “watch party”  open to the public, with a giant flat screen TV, pizza and soda.

In the hours leading to the debate, most people expressed little faith in Governor Palin’s ability to engage in a serious discussion and expected a dreadful performance. At the same time, many were worried that Senator Biden would come across condescending and professorial.

واشنگتن پریزم

سن لوییس، میسوری – پنجشنبه شب دانشگاه واشنگتن ایالت میسوری میزبان تنها مناظره معاونان ریاست جمهوری انتخابات آتی آمریکا بود حال آنکه بسیاری از ساکنان سن لوییس ترجیح داده بودند این مناظره را  از تلویزیون های خود در اتاق نشیمن یا درمیهمانی های کوچک خودمانی تماشا کنند. در این میان اما فرماندارسابق میسوری باب هولدن که خود دموکرات است واینک مدیر روابط عمومی کالج است به همراه دانشجویان و فارغ التحصیلان دانشگاه هنرهای زیبای وبستر اقدام به برگزاری یک گردهمایی عمومی برای تماشای مناظره نمود. دراین میهمانی که رایگان وشرکت برای عموم درآن آزاد بود، پیتزا و نوشابه به حضار ارائه می شد و مناظره از طریق یک تلویزیون عظیم الجثه تخت به نمایش درآمد

در ساعات منتهی به آغاز مناظره اما اعتقاد به کارآیی فرماندار پیلین در مناظره بیشتر مورد تردید قرارگرفت. این درحالی بود که عده ای هم نگران این بودند که سناتور بایدن وارد مباحث دانشگاهی شود و از موضع فروتنانه برخورد کند
آرتوربنکز که 53 ساله و سابقا کارگر رستوران بوده است و از انتخاب شدن مک کین نگران است چرا که به نظر او با آمدن مک کین مستمری ها قطع می شود، حامی اوباما است. او می گوید :"سارا پیلین امشب نیز اشتباهات متعددی می کند. من مصاحبه اش با کتی کوریک در سی بی اس را دیده ام