An article published in the Hindustan Times on Monday quoted an anonymous Obama advisor as saying, “You can’t swing a dead cat in the Obama camp without hitting an Indian.” The implication here is that Indians and South Asian Americans are going to be a huge part of this new administration. Well earlier today one “Sonal Shah” rocketed all the way up to the 7th position as the most searched term on Google:
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p>Turns out that Ms. Shah was named part of Obama’s transition team advisory board today:
On the list: former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Carol Browner; Obama friend and former Commerce Secretary William Daley, University of California-Berkeley law school dean Christopher Edley; Obama law school friends and advisers Michael Froman and Julius Genachowski; former Gore domestic policy adviser Donald Gips; Governor Janet Napolitano; former transportation secretary Federico Peña; Obama national security adviser Susan Rice and Sonal Shah of Google.org. [Link]
Shah was probably brought in on the recommendation of the current head of the transition team, John Podesta:
Shah, although not as visible an Obama activist as Bansal, had been brought into the transition team in the summer by her old boss Podesta, and told rediff.com that she will be taking a leave of absence from Google.org for the next two-and-a-half months at least till Obama is sworn in January 20 as the 44th president of the United States.
While Bansal will be working on personnel operations beyond January 20, her name is also been thrown up for a senior level position in the Department of Justice, and speculation is rife that she could be the new Solicitor General.
However, Bansal has been keeping a low profile and told rediff.com that she didn’t want to comment on the speculation or her duties as part of the personnel selection team, but insiders said, “She will be very heavily involved on the personnel side.” [Link]
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p>What is up with all these people working at Goldman Sachs being pulled in to government? I think prior to the Wall Street meltdown GS was becoming the new Skull & Bones in terms of how many of its people are finding themselves in power. Let’s hope all of Obama’s people have resumes like this:
Sonal Shah works for Google.org on their Global Development team, where she is working on defining their global development strategy. Prior to Google.org, she was Vice President at Goldman, Sachs and Co. and developed and implemented the firm’s environmental strategy. She is also the co-founder of Indicorps, a U.S.-based non-profit organization offering one-year fellowships for Americans of Indian origin to work on specific development projects in India. As the former Associate Director for Economic and National Security Policy at the Center for American Progress, Sonal worked on trade, outsourcing and post conflict reconstruction issues. Prior to joining the Center, she was the Director of Programs and Operations at the Center for Global Development managing the daily operations and serving as a strategic adviser to the president. She also developed and managed policy and advocacy programs for the Center. Before that she worked for eight years at the Department of Treasury on various economic issues and regions of the world. She was the Director of the office covering sub Saharan Africa, worked in Bosnia and Kosovo after the war, and served as the senior adviser to the Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary at the Department of Treasury during the Asian financial crisis. [Link]
Speaking of which, what is going to happen to Neel Kashkari, recently named head of the Troubled Assets Relief Program? He’s out of course as soon as Obama takes over. Who will replace him though?
The other interesting proposition floating around is who runs the TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) after Neil Kashkari leaves. Will there be a special rescue czar and could Obama persuade, say, Warren Buffett to take the gig for one year?… [Link]
Not so fast. There’s a rumor going around that Obama will ask Robert Gates to continue as Sec of Defense. If that rumor has some fact to it, there’s a possibility he may retain a few other appointees in their current roles. Too much uncertainty currently for meaningful speculation. Better wait for a couple of weeks until we get a clearer picture.
Wow, Google is harsh, man!
1 · pingpong said
Nope. I was wondering where the Gates rumor was coming from, but if it has anything to it, it applies only to him. One of the things about which we can be absolutely certain is that Hank ‘King Henry’ Paulson is not going to be kept on. Treasury already has a suite of transition offices for the next appointee’s team – who could be Tim Geithner NY Fed Chief who’s in his 40s; or even Volcker for a short period, say a year (he’s in his 80s) or, people who served before could come back – Larry Summers; or even, hard as it is to believe, Bob Rubin; or even harder to believe, Jon Corzine, former Goldman Sachs boss but a Democrat, unlike Paulson.
My bets are on Geithner.
Raj Goyle re-elected to Kansas Legislature
Nikki Haley wins landslide in South Carolina
Swati Dandekar wins big
Kashkari is almost certainly out. Paulson has not earned the trust of democrats, or even many center-left economists, and Kashkari is his blue-eyed boy. As for SecDef, the Gates rumor has caught fire in recent days, and it has the virtue of continuity with Gates also being aligned on Gitmo, Iraq, and Afghanistan with Obama’s views as far as his public pronouncements are concerned, but there are murmurs about Hagel getting the job too, which would also be a Republican carrot, and be more of a break from the Bush era.
The big argument against Larry Summers for treasury secretary is that it will mean too many Clinton hands (already with Rahm Emmanuel, his transition team, and potential NSA picks, he’s relying on many Clinton veterans). No way is Bob Rubin getting the job – it is a miracle he isn’t getting any flak for the deregulations that happened on his watch, and appointing him will open that can of worms, plus (for what it’s worth) he ruled himself out on Fareed Zakaria’s GPS a couple of weekends ago.
That’s the weirdest expression in the world ‘you can’t swing a dead cat’ haha. Go Obama! It’s also funny how Obama’s win is supposed to symbolize a reduced emphasis on race, but in fact it’s made us more aware of it.
Great blog, i just discovered it from an incoming link. Shall come back.
yes, at first i was excited. swinging kitties! and then i realized they were dead.
That sounds like the usual indian media hyperbole conveniently based on an “anonymous” source. These are the same clowns who declare India is already a superpower, that 35% of NASA is indian-americans, that silicon valley would collapse without indian H1-Bs and other such laughable BS.
This is shocking. I’m going to forward this to the appropriate parties and organise a nation-wide protest to express the spontaneous sentiments of the people. Why are Indians being hit by dead cats, swinging or otherwise, in the United States? This is just the thin end of the wedge: before you know it they’ll be swinging our beloved cows too. Tch.
Perhaps the diaspora doesn’t care much for the security interests of the Indian nation. But, here’s why an Obama government is worrying the thinking Indian: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3678932,flstry-1.cms
Also, @ Cut the BS: You hit the nail on the head there. Typical Indian media hyperbole. We should stop sticking our head in the sand and realise that Obama isn’t all that peachy keen on India or Indians for that matter. No need to cheer just becuase he can make dal and carries around a pocket Hanuman. All part of his manufactured liberal-internationalist appeal.
Sonal Shah of google.org or Sonal Shah of Hindutva. Sadly an open question to me. See here for her role in the controversy that ensued alleging it was attached to BJP/VHP/RSS/etc.
Chachaji, good point. Point taken.
My early thoughts had been on Corzine, but I’ve come to realize that he is more a mixed bag. On one hand, he was a key player in the LTCM bailout back in the day, which arguably gives him some familiarity and experience with rescue packages. On the other hand, he was quite a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries, and he could be perceived as yet another Clintonite.
12 · Dr Amonymous said
So if a person works closely with, or in agreement with, an objectionable group, they must then be viewed with suspicion? Not judged on the merits of their own words and deeds?
We all know that the progressives have no quarrels with the people who would make Kashmir a Muslim state (or merge with one). Looks like their commitment to secularism is fairly limited which makes their “Stop Funding Hate” campaign suspect. I am sure they would have no problem with the Muslim Students association at Stanford which invited an official from Sudan’s genocidal regime as a guest speaker. They posit that the humans rights concerns of the Darfur activists is grounded in Islamophobia. Let’s watch as the very clever Dr. Amnonymous say this is an aberration and that we should fear campus HSCs more than MSANs and that association with the VHP is more troubling than associations with CAIR. It would be great to have real allies in keeping India secular (and not becoming a Hindu Pakistan) but they are not to be found in the Left
14 · Nayagan said
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blockquote>12 ·
I said open question. There’s a spectrum between guilt by six degrees of separation and guilt by participation. I’m not condemning it without knowing more. I’m raising the issue as a possible warning flag for people who might care that Obama is working with someone that has been accused, rightly or wrongly, of promoting Hindu fundamentalism. Seems like something South Asian Americans would be interested in 😉 It’s at minimum certainly something to be aware of, especially since the model that Hindutva works on is to separate the “serivce” and the “political’ wings but not really do either.
See here for more.
“Sonal Shah of google.org or Sonal Shah of Hindutva. Sadly an open question to me. See here for her role in the controversy that ensued alleging it was attached to BJP/VHP/RSS/etc.”
I hope the democrat govt doesn’t lose credibility by appointing a Gujarati to office. It is tantamount to legitimizing the 2002 Gujarat Holocaust.
17 · kayastha_lady said
Right. And God forbid they ever appoint a person with German ancestry to any position at all. Because that would be tantamount to legitimizing the Holocaust.
Kayastha, if you’re going to make a stretch comment such as the one you made … then at least bother to do your research first.
Unfortunately her ties to Hindutva, particularly VHP are real. I wonder if she really buys into all of it or just sees it as a preservation of Hindu culture in the US (as opposed to an attack on other cultures as was seen in the Gujarat massacres). Anyone know for sure?
Kayastha_lady @ 17: Now, now. You call yourself a “Lady”, and make such gutterworthy comment as this? If you have some gripes against Gujarati people, you should take your problems elsewhere and not on SM. Some Lady ………Hmmm
@ 17 Prema, Macacaroach, …. is back (again) !!!
Re kayastha_lady’s remark, either everybody’s sarcasm detector is broken or mine is giving false positives.
BTW, kayastha_lady, could you please find a better handle? The one you have now sounds like an incomplete matrimonial ad from the Sunday Hindu.
23 · pingpong said
I’m with you
…if this is the same Sonal Shah, she doesn’t have a prayer…this is the US and not India..you are held accountable for your past associations and actions….in a globalized, online world, it wont take much time for a Obama staffer to google and understand the issues involved here(including the fact that the US DOS went out of its way to deny Modi a visa- probably the only principled thing Bush did in 8 years)…even though I would have loved to see Indian-Americans in an Obama administration, nobody who associated to any degree with a genocidal fascist should be allowed to get away with it- especially a second generation ABD who should have known better
To be fair, McCain and Obama competed in a nationally televised debate over who could kiss up to war criminal Henry Kissinger more.
Thank you Dr. Amonymous for bringing this up.
Interested people: Please post, link or mail at http://www.change.gov (the official president-elect’s page)details of Sonal Shah and Indicorp’s associations with VHP-A with links to well regarded reports and analysis (Amnesty, HRW, mainstream Indian newspapers, DC thinktank reports)of the role of the parent VHP organization in the Gujarat genocide, and how much of it was funded by US NRI money. The Obama campaign was about hope and change and against hate, and it should not be tarnished so early on by appointing (at whatever level)someone with any kind of association with one of worst state approved pogroms of this century. Let us nip this thing in the bud. As Indian Americans who care about the US and India, let us send a message to those who think their links to hate can be hidden by distance, obscurity and/or semantics. Such individuals should not be allowed a place in the American polity. Not in America, not now!
Disclaimer: I am a fiscal conservative, political liberal, non and anti-Marxist, non-Muslim (like even Obama had to say- such is the world) and anti-jehadist. At some level, I am a Indian nationalist, but of the enlightened variety. Sorry, but had to put this in, before anybody imputed motives or ideology.
Disclaimer: I am a fiscal conservative, political liberal, non and anti-Marxist, non-Muslim (like even Obama had to say- such is the world) and anti-jehadist. At some level, I am a Indian nationalist, but of the enlightened variety. Sorry, but had to put this in, before anybody imputed motives or ideology.
29 · test said
Sure you are.
But Muslims who advocate openly for Kashmiri independence as a Muslim nation based on their numerical majority are allowed in polite company. Hypocrites and liars through omission…
Hopefully there will be a campaign to deport Pakistani-Americans who served in Bangladesh in ’71 and had specific orders to focus their efforts on Hindus
“But Muslims who advocate openly for Kashmiri independence as a Muslim nation based on their numerical majority are allowed in polite company.”
I have been left stupefied by your ignorance. Please don’t try to raise straw men. Kashmiri muslims have suffered the yoke of the Indian state for a thousand years, and violent militancy is a very recent response of a people who been disoriented with an exclusive democratic process that refuses to accommodate their aspirations. A situation roughly analogous to the above is the recent trouble in Assam, where Bengali muslims having suffered humiliation at the hands of the political system that uses them as nothing more than votebank and have taken recourse to violence. Time after time we are repeating our old mistakes. The needs of some people are special, and we need to acknowledge them to keep the pluralism of India alive.
Errr–well, it was wrong and terrible, but where have you been? Darfur? Congo? In the past, say 100 years, we’ve seen (see Le Livre Noir du Communisme : Crimes, Terreur, Répression), the Commies alone kill: 60+ million (m.) in China 20+ m. in the USSR & E’rn Europe c. 2 m. in N. Korea & another 2 m. in Cambodia and close to 2 m. in Africa
32 · kayastha_lady said
A thousand years? The GOI has a time machine? The needs of some people are indeed special, I am sure the Bajrang Dal will be happy to know that you accept their aspirations for a pure homeland as equal to the aspirations of their philsophical twins the Kashmiri jihadis
according to RJ Rummel, top ten govts commiting democide (intentional government killing of an unarmed person or people, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder.) in the 20th century:
1.-Soviet Union (1917-87)-Collectivization executions, etc: 61M 2.-Communist China (1949-87)-Executions of landlords etc: 35M 3.-Nazi Germany (1933-45) 21M 4.-Nationalist China(1928-49)-Purges of communists: 20M 5.-Japan’s military (1936-45)-Nanking massacre, etc: 5.9M 6.-China (1923-49)-Communist guerrilla action: 3.5M 7.-Cambodia (1975-79)-Khmer Rouge kill 1/3 of Cambodians: 2M 8.-Turkey (1909-18)-Slaughter of Turkey’s Armenians: 1.9M 9.-Vietnam (1945-1987)-Communists killed any opposition: 1.7M 10.-Poland (1945-1948)-Ethnic Germans killed: 1.6M
**recently, he upped mao’s china to 73M, congo free state logged in at 10M, and all colonialism in the 20th century at 50M. darfur came in at 400K
Yep. Main point (for me, at least) being: Gujarat riots: bad? Yes. evil? Yes. do we want them repeated? No. Are they among the most evil events in the past 100 years? No. (No excuse for them, and, indeed, so much the worse for humanity, but please–a little perspective on the rhetoric!!)