The fog is starting to lift folks! Confusion is beating a retreat!

For example, I doubt if George Bush knew what a “Blackberry” looked like, let alone how to use it!

Obama, meanwhile, after a long fight with his handlers, has been able to keep his phone as long as he makes some security changes to it!

This in a nutshell shows the differences between the two Presidents and how they relate to the world.

Barak Obama is the first President who cannot remember where he was when JFK was shot because he was only two years old at the time.

He is on the border between being a “Baby Boomer” and a “Gen X”.

To highlight the difference between the two Presidential camps and how it might affect U.S. policy makers, when Obama’s team moved into the White House they were floored by how primitive the communication systems were.

Mark Hefflinger says that members of the tech-savvy Obama administration spent their first full day in the White House on Wednesday coming to grips with largely outdated technology, including old computer software, disconnected phone lines and a shortage of laptops.

“It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton told the paper.

Staff members, who had relied heavily on the Internet and other cutting-edge technologies throughout the campaign, found that security regulations forbade staples such as outside email accounts and instant messaging.

And though the administration had pledged to keep the public in the loop through the Internet, its newly re-launched website had gone without an update until late Wednesday night.

Officials have vowed to rectify that situation.

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Speaking of President Barack Obama, have I mentioned yet how it seems that a bit of sanity and common sense is already seeping into White House policy.

On Friday, Obamam struck down the Bush administration’s ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information - an inflammatory policy that has bounced in and out of law for the past quarter-century.

Obama’s executive order, the latest in an aggressive first week reversing contentious policies of the previous president was warmly welcomed by liberal groups and denounced by abortion rights foes.

The ban has been a political football between Democratic and Republican administrations since Republican President Ronald Reagan first adopted it 1984. Democrat Bill Clinton ended the ban in 1993, but Republican George W. Bush re-instituted it in 2001 as one of his first acts in office.

“For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us,” Obama said in a statement released from the White House. “I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate.”
He said the ban was unnecessarily broad and undermined family planning in developing countries.

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Did I mention yet that President Obama is going to reverse many of the stupid decisions that Bush implemented because of his far right wing ideology? ;-)

On the question of stem cell research, under President Bush, federal funding had been limited to around 60 stem cell lines created from embryos destroyed prior to August 2001.

Scientists had warned that only 20 eligible cell lines remained useful for research and many of these were problematic.

Researchers have told “Perspective” that the restrictions have slowed down their work. As a matter of fact BBC news has learned that Geron Corp, a company behind embryonic stem cell research, plans to initiate a clinical trial in a handful of patients paralysed due to spinal cord injury.

Interest in use of embryonic stem cells is due to their ability to turn into any of the body’s 200 cell types.

Using embryos donated through IVF treatment, scientists have coaxed the stem cells inside into many types of tissue. One embryo can provide a limitless supply because the cell lines can be grown indefinitely.

Geron, a bio tech company based in “silicon valley” south of San Francisco, has spent $170m on developing a stem cell treatment for spinal cord injury.

The research will use cells coaxed to become nerve cells which are injected into the spinal cord.

In animal trials of the treatment, paralysed rats regained some movement.

Company chief Dr Tom Okarma said: “What stem cells promise for a heart attack or spinal cord injury or diabetes is that you go to the hospital, you receive these cells and you go home with a repaired organ, that has been repaired by new heart cells or new new nerve cells or new islet cells that have been made from embryonic stem cells.”

This will be of special interest to people who are on dialysis or want a new kidney (or heart) since scientists think that this research will lead to organ farms where replacement parts can be grown, and the need for transplants eliminated.

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While we are on the subject of Obama, have I mentioned yet that U.S. President Barack Obama launched a drive yesterday to clean up the mess Georgie left and to get his $825 billion economic recovery plan through Congress, predicting lawmakers would resolve differences before a mid-February deadline.

“We are experiencing an unprecedented economic crisis that has to be dealt with and dealt with rapidly,” Obama told reporters as he met Democratic and Republican congressional leaders at the White House.
The Democrat, who was sworn in on a mandate of change, has pledged swift action to rescue the U.S. economy from the worst turmoil in decades. With a daily stream of gloomy economic data, he has warned there is little time to lose.

Obama’s recovery package aims to:

_double within three years the amount of energy that could be produced from renewable resources. That is an ambitious goal, given the 30 years it took to reach current levels. Advisers say that could power 6 million households.

_upgrade 10,000 schools and improve learning for about 5 million students.

_save $2 billion a year by making federal buildings energy efficient.

_triple the number of undergraduate and graduate fellowships in science.

_tighten security at 90 major ports.

The plan would spend at least 75 percent of the total cost — or more than $600 billion — within the first 18 months, either through bricks-and-shovels projects favored by Democrats or tax cuts that Republicans have pushed.

There is heavy emphasis on public works projects, which have lagged as state budgets contracted. Governors have lobbied Obama to help them patch holes in their budgets, drained by sinking tax revenues and increased need for public assistance such as Medicaid and children’s health insurance. Obama’s plan would increase the federal portion of those programs so no state would have to cut any of the 20 million children whose eligibility is now at risk.

Obama’s plan would also provide health care coverage for 8.5 million people who lose their insurance when they either lose or shift jobs.

“It’s a plan that will save or create 3 to 4 million jobs over the next few years” and recognizes “there are millions of Americans trying to find work even as, all around the country, there’s so much work to be done,” he said.

But he cautioned again against expecting instant results: “No one policy or program will solve the challenges we face right now, nor will this crisis recede in a short period of time.”

Winning Republican support for the stimulus plan will be an early test of Obama’s promise to forge consensus and overcome the partisan politics that divided Washington under Bush. Fortunatly Obama is in his “Honeymoon” phase!

It remains to be seen, though, how long the honeymoon will last.

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Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don’t want you to know!) and is available as an E-Book H E R E ! and as a paperback H E R E !

Visit the blog “Perspective” at http://allans-perspective.blogspot.com