Category Archives: Politics

Why Stop History – Repeal It

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Time Magazine’s Michael Grunwald has an interesting new piece out which examines “Why Ron Paul scares the GOP.” Well worth a read:

Under Bush’s leadership, of course, the Republican Party has been anything but frugal and anything but isolationist. The congressional Republican revolutionaries seemed to lose their zeal for shrinking the federal government once they controlled it, which is one reason voters expelled them from power in 2006. And these days, it’s usually Democrats who call for a humbler foreign policy. Paul’s leave-us-alone libertarianism hasn’t fit in with a party anxious to read our e-mail, improve our values, assert American power abroad and subsidize friendly industries at home. The party’s recent mix of “national greatness” neoconservatives, evangelical theoconservatives and K Street careerists has had many goals, but leaving people alone hasn’t been one of them. That’s why Paul was the one getting booed at G.O.P. debates. And that’s one reason why Paul’s fervent followers were banned from the activist Republican website RedState.

In fairness, though, another reason RedState’s directors got tired of the Paulistas was that so many of them seemed — what’s the polite word? — nuts. Paul’s supporters aren’t all black-helicopter paranoiacs, but the black-helicopter paranoiacs sure do support Ron Paul. The controversy over a few racist articles in his old newsletters was probably overblown; there’s no evidence that Paul himself was ever a racist. But he is an extremist — partly in the Barry Goldwater extremism-in-defense-of-liberty-is-no-vice sense of the word, but also in the wacky let’s-relitigate-the-currency-debates-of-the-1820s sense of the word. The late William F. Buckley wanted conservatives to stand athwart history yelling stop; Paul seems to want to slam history into reverse. The guy genuinely wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and start circulating gold again.
Why Ron Paul Scares the GOP – TIME

Truth And Consequences

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I just read an interesting piece by Roland S. Martin over on Anderson Cooper’s 360 blog. In it he examines the controversial sermon delivered by Rev. Jeremiah Wright which has been much touted as an example of the Rev.’s intemperance. Here is an excerpt:

One of the most controversial statements in this sermon was when he mentioned “chickens coming home to roost.” He was actually quoting Edward Peck, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan’s terrorism task force, who was speaking on FOX News. That’s what he told the congregation.
Anderson Cooper 360: Blog Archive – The full story behind Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s 9/11 sermon « – Blogs from CNN.com

Please chase the link, this is a column worth reading.

Fisk On Target Again

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I haven’t quoted Robert Fisk, the Independent’s intrepid Mideast correspondent, in quite a while. But, on this, the fifth anniversary of that indefensible misadventure into Iraq, it just feels right. Here is an excerpt from his latest:

… Churchill and Roosevelt argued about the timing of the announcement that war in Europe had ended. And it was the Russians who pipped them to the post. But we told the truth. When the British were retreating to Dunkirk, Churchill announced that the Germans had “penetrated deeply and spread alarm and confusion in their tracks”.

Why didn’t Bush or Blair tell us this when the Iraqi insurgents began to assault the Western occupation forces? Well, they were too busy telling us that things were getting better, that the rebels were mere “dead-enders”.

On 17 June 1940, Churchill told the people of Britain: “The news from France is very bad and I grieve for the gallant French people who have fallen into this terrible misfortune.” Why didn’t Blair or Bush tell us that the news from Iraq was very bad and that they grieved – even just a few tears for a minute or so – for the Iraqis?

For these were the men who had the temerity, the sheer, unadulterated gall, to dress themselves up as Churchill, heroes who would stage a rerun of the Second World War, the BBC dutifully calling the invaders “the Allies” – they did, by the way – and painting Saddam’s regime as the Third Reich.
Robert Fisk: The only lesson we ever learn is that we never learn – Robert Fisk, News – Independent.co.uk

Promising Signs

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Most attention this campaign season in the US has been focused on the race for the top of the ticket, but some down ticket races are of great import.

Last night in Illinois the 14th Congressional district, predominately to the west of Chicago,  which went vacant with the early retirement of former Republican Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert, was won by Democrat Bill Foster, a physicist and business man from Geneva IL.  Foster defeated James D. Oberweis, a dairy man and financier.

Combined with the Democratic primary result earlier this season in Maryland, in which left winger and Move-On darling Donna Edwards unseated long time incumbent Albert Wynn by a walloping 60/36 margin.  Voters were especially concerned about Wynn’s record of support for the Iraq war.

Progressives can look towards the fall elections with some sense of promise given these recent results.

In Haste – An Apology

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In a post from Prague earlier today I referred to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist as “a fatuous moron.” This was in reference to his appearance on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer on CNN which I had earlier seen. I was wrong, and for that I apologize.

My pique had been raised by Crist’s comments about holding a do-over Democratic primary in his state. I stated in that posting that Crists’s claims of his citizens being “disenfranchised” was fatuous since the leaders of the Democratic party in Florida had willfully broken the national party’s rules by holding their primary so early.

Again, I was wrong. I had forgotten, until Penn. Gov. Ed Rendell pointed out in a later broadcast segment that the Democratic party leaders in Florida had asked for their primary to be held on Feb. 5, Super Tuesday, but that Charlie Crist and his fellow Republicans in the state legislature overruled the Dems and voted to hold the primary earlier.

Fair enough. I’m a big man. I can admit when I’m wrong, and I will hereby post a correction. Charlie Crist is not a fatuous moron. Governor Charlie Crist is a fatuous duplicitous moron.

Oh, and Wolf Blitzer, who is actually paid to talk to people about this stuff is even more of a hack than I thought for not pointing this out to the duplicitous moron while he was on air.

Back to our regularly scheduled rants.

Wolf Blitzer Is A Hack

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And Charlie Crist is a fatuous moron.

Okay, now that we have the supposition stated, let’s proceed to examine the facts. Late last night, 01:00 CET, CNN International ran an episode of “Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer which started with the most audacious display of hyperbolic palaver and partisan meddling I have ever witnessed.

The topic: Should the Democratic National Committee pay for Florida to have a “do over” primary election? The sole guest: Charlie Crist, Florida’s Republican governor. Charlie Crist is a self proclaimed messianic nut job, a man who ran for governor because Christ told him he would. And, he is a Republican — what could he possibly have to say about who should pay for the Democratic nominating elections? Well, what he had to say, over and over and over, unchallenged by Mr. Blitzer, is that the “only solution” was a primary election, if the “National Democratic Party” paid the $18 million or more that would cost.

He then went on to proclaim that the issue of the “disenfranchisement” of his citizens by the “National Democratic Party” was not a “partisan” issue, that his buddy Sen. Bill Menendez (R-FL), former head of the Republican National Committee agreed with him, as did Sen. Bob Nelson (D-FL) who has egg on his face (along with Michigan’s Sen. Carl Levin) for trying to perform an end run around the clearly stated, member supported and voted on, DNC rules which stated that no state could move their primary prior to February 5th or would face the loss of seating rights for their delegations at the party’s national nominating convention.

Where do we start with the monumental idiocy of that chain of reasoning? Let’s give it a try. First off, no one is disenfranchised here. There is no franchise, no right, which anyone has lost. The citizens of Florida have no franchise in the Democratic party other than to the extent to which they may be members in good standing of that party. If their state leaders decide to break the rules of the party, clearly stated and agreed to, then they are no longer in good standing and have no rights. The only affront to the Constitution would be if Florida stripped the Democratic Party of its right of free association by meddling in how it chooses and credentials its delegates.

One big problem with the state administering partisan primary elections is that this makes people think that they are state functions. They are not, they are partisan functions. In this case a partisan function of the highest order, as we are talking about the nominating process for the head of the party. You don’t get much more partisan than that. Simply because Crist and Menendez, (R), and Levin, Nelson and Michigan Gov. Granholm (D) agree that their states should have do overs does not mean that it is no longer a partisan issue. What possible reason, for example, could Crist and Menendez have to care about this? Well, for one their state stands to gain from a huge influx of campaign spending, on the order of tens of millions of dollars. Making this last point was the only demonstration of backbone in an otherwise jellyfish like appearance by Blitzer, by the way. The other reason, the other purely partisan reason that these two distinguished partisans would care? Well, because since their party has already locked in a nominee, their membership and supporters would feel free to go and meddle in the Democratic do-over.

Oh my, the blood boils at just how ridiculous this entire display was last night!

Frank Rich Takes On McCain Mythology

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Over at The New York Times, Frank Rich has consistently demonstrated more forethought and prescience than most of his fellow columnists, at the Times or elsewhere. One of the things I love about reading his columns online is that he understands the medium, and exploits it to full effect. His once-weekly columns are about 2½ times as long as the rest of the Murderer’s Row cohort, but he further leverages that by peppering his columns with links to stories in other press, historical references, etc.

Today’s column is a capital example, where he simultaneously takes on the mythology of John McCain’s rectitude and the futility of his current line of attack on Barack Obama. I particularly like these two paragraphs:

In desperation to land some knockout punch, some McCain supporters, following the precedent of Clinton surrogates, are already invoking Mr. Obama’s race, middle name and tourist snapshot in Somali dress to smear his patriotism. The idea is to make him a Manchurian candidate, a closet anti-Semitic jihadist trained in a madrassa run by, say, Louis Farrakhan.

What repeatedly goes unrecognized by all of Mr. Obama’s opponents is that his political Kryptonite is the patriotism he offers in lieu of theirs. His upbeat notion of a yes-we-can national mobilization for the common good, however saccharine, speaks to the pride and idealism of Americans who are bone-weary of a patriotism defined exclusively by flag lapel pins, the fear of terrorism and the prospect of perpetual war.
McCain Channels His Inner Hillary – New York Times

London Journal – Day 19 – Sleeping and Dreaming

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I almost forgot to mention my stop at the Wellcome Collection today. Their current exhibit is Sleeping and Dreaming, and quite good. I particularly enjoyed the Traces of Sleep section. One piece, The Sleepers by Nils Klinger, is a portrait of sleep achieved by means of a super-long exposure taken by the light of a single candle while the subject slept. The room was darkened, the candle lit, and the shutter opened. Once the candle had failed, the shutter was closed. The result is a sort of time-lapse photograph of the sleeper (note: this is not the exact piece displayed in the exhibit):

The Sleeper

The rest of the collection is captivating, and well captured in The Phantom Museum, by The Brothers Quay a stop action animation featured in the Museum.

I then wandered down through Tottenham Court to get some lunch and enjoy the scenery. Of particular interest was the scene outside a Scientology office. Scientology is treated here as a dangerous cult and roundly hated. In these two pictures you can see the protesters on the east side of the road and the offices on the west. There are more bobbies here than I have seen in any one place the entire time I have been here.

London Journal – Day 12 – A Close Up View From Abroad

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I have been meaning for some time to write a bit about the political and social tides which are currently roiling the UK. I finally made time to do so.

Ever since I got here I have been hearing and reading about the impact of immigration on the country. Now as someone who’s here precisely to see if repatriation is the right move for me, this is a topic of great interest. First a little background.

The UK has very liberal immigration policies at the present time, especially for citizens of other European Union (EU) countries. In the EU, one country’s passport is pretty much as good as any other’s is. When I received my UK passport, the first thing I noticed is that it says “European Union” above “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland” on the cover and the first page. With this passport I am a citizen of pretty much the entire continent, and may travel, live and work fairly freely about it.

This may sound simple enough, but the economic integration of Europe, the “Eurozone” is incomplete. There are many countries being integrated, but they still have their own economic ups and downs, and different standards of living. The free and open borders created by the EU, and the freedom of movement integral to the “Four Freedoms” upon which it was formed, has allowed people from the poorer countries to migrate to and get jobs in the richer ones. Thus a massive influx of Polish workers have taken most of the entry level jobs in the service industry.

This has lead to some bridling by traditionalists. Recently there was a row when it was proposed that Chinese, Indian and other ethnic restaurants be required to actually have some members of those ethnicities on their kitchen staff; so many are the Poles.

The complaints are not just nationalistic, though. Culture plays a large role as well. There have been a huge immigration, too, of illegals from Muslim countries such as Jordan, Algeria, Palestine. Many of these recent immigrants have not integrated into the British society, but have constituted their own insular communities alongside that of the majority. The same has been true for years in portions of the Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and other former commonwealth populations.

A recent Vanity Fair article outlined the effect of this insular world upon one man and the struggle he is now locked in with the state over allegations (as yet unsupported) of terrorism.

These struggles are not unique to the UK – most European countries, especially in the north of the continent, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, have had to contend with similar problems. The failure to integrate, is achingly troubling to these liberal, open, socially supportive nations. What is different about the UK, however, is that as the colonial power over the former commonwealth, and with the national sense of commitment to the citizens of that commonwealth, it does face unique struggles.

This was reflected in the conversation I had last Saturday, the 16th, with a shopkeep in Church Street. She admonished me to stay in America and not think of repatriation. “Immigration is ruining this country!” she exclaimed. “I am not racist, it is an economic issue. The dole is too generous. A family on the dole gets £100 per child*, so a Bangladeshi woman has five kids, that’s £500! She can just have another if they need some more. What am I supposed to do? My taxes are paying that. I can’t have any more kids, I’m not getting anything for free.” and on.

That was on Saturday. Interestingly enough, just a few days later, on Tuesday, 19th Feb., PM Gordon Brown announced “As people are ever more mobile, it also becomes ever more important to develop a new approach to managed migration…I stand for a British way of life where we, the people, are protected from crime but in return we obey the law.” New immigrants are “actively entering into a contract through which, by virtue of responsibilities accepted, the right of citizenship is earned.”

“We will introduce a new English language requirement for those applying for a marriage visa and planning to settle in the UK – both as part of our determination that everyone who comes here to live should be able to speak English and to make sure they cannot be exploited” said his home secretary, Jacqui Smith. “This is a country of liberty and tolerance, opportunity and diversity, and these values are reinforced by the expectation that all who live here should learn our language, play by the rules, obey the law and contribute to the community.”

“Foreigners will also have to demonstrate fluency in English and knowledge of the British way of life. After five years in the country, they will have to choose to apply to become a citizen or a permanent resident. Those refusing to take either option will be ordered to leave,” according to press reports.

Well, I am here at the cusp aren’t I.

All around me in the paper, on the wireless and in the streets a drama is playing out in the life of a country struggling to cope with the essence of what it means to be a country. This is the tenor of debate on the topic, and the tension is palpable. People complain openly that the neighbourhood pub now serves Thai cuisine instead of bangers and pies (okay, no English food jokes here). There is open distrust on the streets, especially in places like Finsbury Park, home of the controversial Mosque where many recent terrorists and terrorism suspects, such as Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the shoe bomber and the “20th” 9/11 hijacker, have studied and where Imam Adu Hamza gave fiery hate filled sermons.

There are calls afoot to review the nation’s much vaunted approach to a multicultural society. Deborah Orr, whom I quoted in a recent posting, makes reference to this in another column here .

I do not know where this will lead, but it is hot right now, and there is no election or other event looming in the near future to force the issues. It will be interesting to see where things go.

Ta!

*I am not clear if this is per month or per week. In England many rates are commonly posted and calculated per week.

Note: As I sit writing this, sitting on the patio, I have been listening to the family who lives in the home above me having tea.  The window to their kitchen is open, and I hear the sounds of dining and their easy conversation.  I understand very little of it as they easily slip between French and Arabic.  Not much in English.  I would venture a guess that they are Algerian, but that is only a guess.