Posted on 12/10/2008 3:22:06 PM PST by twistedwrench
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- President-elect Barack Obama will nominate Nobel laureate Steven Chu as energy secretary and Lisa Jackson to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, according to media reports Wednesday. Obama is also expected to name Carol Browner as energy 'czar,' the reports said. Chu, a Chinese-American, won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1997.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
What is Obama's name in Chinese characters?
I don't know Chinese but I have a Chinese-English dictionary (Langenscheidt's--PRC characters with pinyin equivalents).
O as first tone (high, level) can be an expression of understanding ("oh!"). O as second tone (sharp rising) is an expression of doubt. Ba as first tone can mean "8" or "scar," as second tone "pull out," as fourth tone (starts high, then falls) "dad," "tyrant," "dam," "stop," or "handle." Ma as first tone can mean "mom," or "wipe," as second tone "hemp," as third tone (falling then rising again) "horse" or "yard," and as fourth tone "curse" or "swear."
Which combination is most suitable? "Oh! Tyrant Horse"? ""Oh! Tyrant Curse"?
I like the idea of "ma" as "horse" being the "ma" of his name, because the same character is used in writing the name Marx.
No doubt the Red Chinese and the Chinese on Taiwan and elsewhere have already figured out an accepted rendition of his name.
How many layers of bureaucracy does O need?
He was born in the U.S., grew up in U.S., attended shcools in U.S. ... or you just automatically disqualify anyone with a Chinese last name?
Wen Ho Lee was from Taiwan. You don’t take chances with nuclear secrets and every Obama pick is suspect.
Can you check to see if he believes in the ethanol scam. As I recall, he may not, which will be interesting given that close advisors to the One such as Daschle are owned by big ethanol.
From the WSJ
“Of course, along with Chu’s distinguished curriculum vitae comes a record of strong scientific arguments, including a position that may not gibe with President-elect Obama’s advocacy of corn-based ethanol. In making the case for grass and waste-based biofuels at a meeting of state agriculture departments in North Dakota this fall, Chu knocked corn ethanol for its up-front energy costs and competition with food supply.”
So no, he is against Corn based ethanol i.e. Burning food for a net loss financed by taxpayer subsidies, but is in favor of other alternative biofuels.
I was talking about Chu, you are talking about Lee. Last I checked, it’s Chu that’s being nominated for Energy Sec, so what does Lee has to do with it?
Again, Chu is born and raised in the U.S., do you automatically disqualify Chu base on his ethnic Chinese last name?
“do you automatically disqualify Chu base on his ethnic Chinese last name?”
yes. Is that unfair? Yes. But the threat of nuclear espionage is much more important than fairness.
FDR’s response was much more extreme.
so we should have disallowed anyone with a Jewish name to work with our nuclear secrets after the Rosenbergs were convicted of spying for the Soviets? Did we bar everyone with a Slavic / Eastern Eurpoean last name from nuclear work during the cold war?
we were very tough in those days. McCarthy was very tough against anyone suspected of communist ties. Over 100,000 Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps during WW2. I highly doubt that they would be allowed to work on nuclear secrets.
I am simply denying a positive and not in favor of denying any special rights. Nobody has a right to be Sec of Energy. The Chinese are known to form cliques and we’ve already been burned before by someone from the democratic country of Taiwan. You don’t screw around and take chances with national security for the sake of PC.
Thank you.
Our memory was correct.
I am completely an utterly horried at the bigotted ignorance that passes for so-called "conservative" "thought" that takes place on this form.
Your statement is utter horseshine in general, and utter nonsense in this particular case. This excuse for folks rising to high levels who have no knowledge of their business is how our invetsment banks have gone belly up and our auto industry has gone belly up. It is worship of the MBA over folks who have an f'in clue what their business actually is. This monkeyshine only passes in the US and in London, and nowhere else in the industrialized world.
Second, it isn't even true in this case. Chu is a successful director of a national laboratory and not just a bench scientist. The Department of Energy's mission is mostly science and technology. Most of its funds are expended at about 15 single and multi-purpose national laboratories to accomplish a number of missions in energy and nuclear defense. DOE has never had a qualified secretary. Bodman is qualified on paper, but in practice he is the same kind of indecisive do-nothing nonentity that characterizes the entire Bush administration with the exception of Gates, who also has a PhD and actual experience in intelligence and national security affairs, a remarkable exception in an unremarkable administration of 2nd raters.
And, for those who are worried that Chu might gain access to nuclear weapons information, as director of a national laboratory he already has that access. Furthermore, Chu is a natural born citizen qualified to be President of the United States.
The only thing wrong with the Chu appointment is that it took a socialist to appoint someone actually qualified for the job rather than a conservative. It is time for conservatives to spend time contemplating how they got everything so so wrong.
The trouble at DOE is a long history of unsavvy political appointees who have no clue how out of control the bureaucracy has become because they have no clue what DOE is supposed to do because they have no scientific or technical education. Chu actually does have a clue as to all of the above.
This is why you need someone who has a technical clue running a science and technology department as opposed to someone who couldn't even make the cut for HUD, which is the usual qualification for secretary of energy.
I really cannot believe the tripe that I am reading on what is supposed to be a forum of rational individuals.
“we were very tough in those days. McCarthy was very tough against anyone suspected of communist ties. Over 100,000 Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps during WW2. I highly doubt that they would be allowed to work on nuclear secrets.”
Neither of these things are tough love. They’re national embarassments.
I agree with you about Chu, and more generally think that we need more smart people and fewer of the blow-dried B-minus students that typically stock the Republican gene pool in Washington.
However, I wouldn’t pin the blame on broader corporate weakness on the cult of the MBA. The Big 3 have always have had a much higher proportion of engineers and designers in senior management. When ex-engineers had their turn in senior roles at the Big 3, they made and continued the same mistakes that the ex-accountants made in their turns in the big chairs.
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