SAJAforum

OBAMA ADMIN: Aneesh Chopra named first U.S. Chief Technology Officer

President Obama has appointed Virginia Technology Secretary Aneesh Paul Chopra as the nation's first Chief Technology Officer. The President announced his pick in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday. Chopra will join forces with recently appointed Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra to overhaul government's technology services, making this a desi DC duo of sorts.

According to the White House Press Release:

As Chief Technology Officer, Chopra will promote technological innovation to help the country meet its goals from job creation, to reducing health care costs, to protecting the homeland.  Together with Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, they will help give all Americans a government that is effective, efficient, and transparent.

When Kundra's job was announced, the chief technology officer job was mentioned, but no exact job description was given. But sources said the CTO would focus more on overall technology policy while the CIO would handle day-to-day spending and operations within agency projects, The Washington Post reported.

More from The Washington Post:

OBAMA ADMIN: Kal Penn Goes To Washington

As "Kumar," he made it to White Castle and out of Guantanamo Bay, and now as himself he’s headed to the White House. Well, next door to the White House anyway.

Actor Kal Penn – who worked on President Barack Obama’s election campaign - has taken a job as associate director in the White House Office of Public Liaison. He’ll work out of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue and focus on reaching out to the Asian American and arts communities.

The new job, of course, means you probably won't be seeing him on "House," "Law & Order SVU" or another "Harold and Kumar" flick for a while. He officially ended his role as Lawrence Kutner on House last week. The prominent Indian American actor, however, isn't "necessarily" giving up show business for good - just taking an opportunity to focus on another interest.

"From the time I was a kid, I really enjoyed that balance between the arts and public service. I went to a performing arts high school, but I still took a bunch of those dorky political science classes," Penn said in an interview with Entertainment Week.

The 31-year-old New Jersey native said his political interests are inspired by his grandparents who marched with Gandhi for Indian independence. "That was always in the back of my head," he told Entertainment Week.

Penn, who has starred in several movies including The Namesake, National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle and Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, also has taught at the University of Pennsylvania.

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OBAMA ADMIN: Anju Bhargava, Eboo Patel join a presidential council

From a White House press release below:

Washington – President Barack Obama today announced additional members of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.  The Advisory Council is part of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and is composed of religious and secular leaders and scholars from different backgrounds.

Among the folks named are two South Asians:

• Anju Bhargava, president, Asian Indian Women in America, New Jersey
• Eboo S. Patel, founder & executive director, Interfaith Youth Core, Chicago, IL

More about Patel here in his bio (as we get more info, we will update this page).

Meanwhile, a lot more about Bhargava, a long-time friend of SAJA, via the press release below and at AnjuBhargava.com. Asked for a comment, she told SAJAforum:

It is a great honor to be the first Indian American woman be part of the President's Council. I am excited and exhilarated.  I expect to bring both my professional risk management and banking background as well as the interfaith and community building aspects into this important initiative of the President.

Post your comments, after the press releases below.

OBAMA ADMIN: CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta withdraws from SG

News from DC, via CNN:

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, has withdrawn his name from consideration as surgeon general of the United States, CNN confirmed Thursday.

Sources said in January that Gupta met then-President-elect Obama in Chicago, Illinois, in November to discuss the post. Gupta has declined comment.

See SAJAforum coverage and comments about the original news in January.

UPDATE, 10:25 pm - a member reports:

He's on CNN right now. Says it was due to personal reasons and found it difficult to bid goodbye to his surgical career...he's expecting his third daughter.

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POLITICS: Bobby Jindal gets some "slum love"

The reviews for Bobby Ji have been a little less than fabulous: his Tuesday night response to Obama's speech to Congress has been derided on the right, left and center, and the Facebook group "Bobby Jindal is Kenneth the Page" has 13,538 members as of this moment--that's the group's clever little photo composite of Kenneth, a character from 30 Rock, and the guv.

But don't count the man out. If anything, he may inadvertently get some sympathy after the exchange below, between talk show host Curtis Sliwa and RNC Chairman Michael Steele. Via Politico:

SLIWA: Now, using a little bit of that street terminology, are you giving him any Slum love, Michael?

STEELE: (laughter)

SLIWA: Because he is — when guys look at him and young women look at him — they say oh, that's the slumdog millionaire, governor. So, give me some slum love.

STEELE: I love it. (inaudible) ... some slum love out to my buddy. Gov. Bobby Jindal is doing a friggin' awesome job in his state. He's really turned around on some core principles — like hey, government ought not be corrupt. The good stuff ... the easy stuff.

So..... slumdog = brown??

If anyone could translate that exchange for us, much would our appreciation be.

See earlier: "After Obama speech, Prime Time for Jindal"

OP-ED: Obama should visit India soon, says Tunku Varadarajan of Forbes

Former WSJ-er Tunku Varadarajan is an academic and a columnist at Forbes now, and this week he's urging President Obama to maintain the "exhilarating degree of cooperation" that existed between India and US during the Bush administration. He also points to an early mis-step in the new administration's dealings with India. From "Obama should visit India--soon":

What President Obama must be careful to do is deal with India on its own terms. He must not return to the old, pre-Bush binary in which India was twinned always with Pakistan and in which American diplomacy with India was always calibrated for the effect it might have on American relations with Pakistan.

India has outgrown Pakistan economically, militarily, strategically and civilizationally--and the U.S. must treat it, on a par with Japan and Germany, as an always-consequential state whose interests can never be disregarded. The Obama administration started off on the wrong foot with India by giving its special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan--Richard Holbrooke--the additional task of seeking resolution on Kashmir, an affair on which India has never encouraged foreign intervention. In the end, hard-nosed Indian diplomacy led to a dropping of Kashmir from the Holbrooke "portfolio," but the Obama administration's intervene-in-Kashmir instinct sowed alarm in New Delhi.

In an item that was widely picked up in the Indian media (DNA, ET, Hindu, NDTV), PTI points to an article in Foreign Policy. It notes that India was originally on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Asia tour:

Interestingly, Clinton's inaugural Asia trip, and her visits to these particular countries, were recommended to her during the transition by Secretary Rice's outgoing Policy Planning Staff. But State's policy planners also included India as a key stop in their proposed itinerary, and the absence of a visit to New Delhi is the latest in an array of troubling signals about the new administration's priorities on the subcontinent (the subject of a future post).

OBAMA INAUGURATION: Video of "Obama Hungama"

A Hindi music video, complete with subtitles, from India. Post your comments below.

US-SOUTH ASIA AFFS: Obama makes statement on India's Republic Day

A statement by President Barack Obama.

------Original Message------
From: White House Press Office
Sent: Jan 25, 2009 6:41 PM
Subject: Statement by the President on the occasion of India Republic Day

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release                                                        January 25, 2009
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

Message on the occasion of India Republic Day

As the people of India and people of Indian origin in America and around the world celebrate Republic Day on January 26, I send the warmest greetings of the American people to the people of India.  Together, we celebrate our shared belief in democracy, liberty, pluralism, and religious tolerance.

Our nations have built broad and vibrant partnerships in every field of human endeavor.  Our rapidly growing and deepening friendship with India offers benefits to all the world⿿s citizens as our scientists solve environmental challenges together, our doctors discover new medicines, our engineers advance our societies, our entrepreneurs generate prosperity, our educators lay the foundation for our future generations, and our governments work together to advance peace, prosperity, and stability around the globe.

It is our shared values that form the bedrock of a robust relationship across peoples and governments.  Those values and ideals provide the strength that enables us to meet any challenge, particularly from those who use violence to try to undermine our free and open societies.  As the Indian people celebrate Republic Day all across India, they should know that they have no better friend and partner than the people of the United States.  It is in that spirit, that I also wish Prime Minister Singh a quick recovery.

##

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OBAMA ADMIN: Neal Katyal to be appointed Deputy Solicitor General

SCOTUSblog and Legal Times have reported that Georgetown University law professor Neal Katyal will be appointed principal deputy solicitor general and will begin work in his new position tomorrow. From Legal Times:

Legal Times has confirmed that Georgetown law professor Neal Katyal, who successfully argued the landmark detainee rights case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld before the Supreme Court, will serve as principal deputy solicitor general, the office’s No. 2 spot, starting Tuesday.

Katyal's appointment is another strong signal of President-elect Barack Obama's intentions to depart sharply from the terrorist detention and interrogation policies of the Bush administration. In Hamdan, the Supreme Court found that the Bush administration's military commissions for trying suspected terrorists violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions. The case, which marked Katyal's first appearance before the high court, was a stinging rebuke to the president's broad assertion of wartime power. [link]

Legal Times also provides some background on the role of the principal deputy:

The principal deputy is also known as the the "political deputy," though, as Legal Times pointed out in this 2005 story, the exact nature of the job is a matter of dispute. Some principal deputies have been pegged for White House moles, while others have defended the office's positions when they were at odds with the administration's. [link]

Last week, Katyal talked to students at Northwestern University about his work on Hamdan:

Although Katyal promised that he would follow the advice of his mother, who was in the audience, and not try to be "funny or charming," he kept the tone congenial. He said to the crowd that, given previous court rulings and current statements by the Obama administration, his subject was one of history.

"Guantanamo is now a relic, and this will be a look back," he said....

[H]e said that the entire process reminded him of the strength of the American legal system.

"The system corrects itself," Katyal said. "The lowest of the low can bring a case against the world's most powerful man and win." [link]

OBAMA INAUGURATION: Kal Penn at "We Are One"

As I watched as one celebrity after another sing or speak at the big "We Are One" concert on HBO - which was part of the three days of inaugural festivities - I was struck by the range of folks who showed up. Bruce Springsteen? Check. Mary J. Blige? Check. Denzel Washington? Check. Steve Carrell? Check. Tiger Woods making his first politics-related appearance? Check.

I wondered if any South Asians would make the cut to make it on stage. It would have to be someone who was a big enough name that they'd be instantly recognized by most of the audience (everyone was being introduced by name only, no other identified) - and someone who, like Springsteen, had been a vocal supporter of Barack Obama's campaign. While several desi celebrities had been big Obama supporters - Mira Nair and Salman Rushdie, for instance - I guessed that only a singer or actor could fit the bill. I was thinking of Norah Jones and Kal Penn. No sign of Jones, but Penn did appear, along with actor George Lopez.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one to notice Penn's presence. From NYmag.com's review by Lane Brown:

But while our president-elect, seated stage right, showed steely resolve by nodding and singing along through even the most terrible performances, heroes Sasha and Malia Obama bravely broadcast their non-enjoyment by looking completely bored (Malia) or falling asleep on their mom's lap (Sasha). When they liked something, though, Malia showed it by excitedly snapping pictures with her camera (neither First Daughter liked Mellencamp, Will.I.Am, or Crow, but both are apparently big fans of Beyoncé, Usher, and Kal Penn).

Here's a screen grab of the First Daughters taking a photo of Penn (HBO cut to this shot while Penn was speaking):

 

And here's Penn announcing a USAService.org video contest on behalf of the Obama team for National Service Day:

Previous items about Kal Penn and the Obama campaign:

• Kal Penn and Obama - Dec. 2, 2007
• Spotting Kal Penn at the DNC - Aug. 29, 2008

You can watch a full recording of the show at HBO.com/weareone

Post your comments below.