This week, President Bush is meeting German Chancellor Gerard Schroeder. Beyond the strangeness of Bush being friendly to someone who's the head of the 'Red-Green Alliance', there's the issue of where this meeting will take place. Not in Berlin, not in Frankfurt, not in Hamburg, not in Bonn or any other major German city, but in Mainz. Previously, he met Russian Vladmir Putin not in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but in Slovenia.
Why? Simple: to avoid protestors. He's learned his lesson after showing up in London. Bush wasn't afraid of getting hurt, but he didn't want the news media covering the idea that people other than Hollywood celebrities and Communists don't approve of what the US is doing. He needn't have worried; the American media treats anti-war, anti-corporate protests with a mixture of contempt and amusement.
This is typical for Dubya; it's more the rule than the exception. That's why his rallies were closed, his 'town hall' meetings are invitation only, and any cabinet offical who disagrees either gets marginalized or kicked out.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
The Bullet vs. the Ballot
I suppose the biggest policy disagreement today centers on how to make the world a peaceful, free place in places where peace and political freedom are virtually unknown.
Conservatives generally support charging in, tearing down the old system, and putting Jeffersonian democracy in it's place.
Liberals support spreading democracy around the world, but via methods other than invasion. Most despotic countries have strong democratic movements which are supressed by the government, often with support and aid from the US government. Liberals would prefer to suspend aid to dictatorial regimes and let countries choose their own fate rather than impose a foreign ideology.
Conservatives generally support charging in, tearing down the old system, and putting Jeffersonian democracy in it's place.
Liberals support spreading democracy around the world, but via methods other than invasion. Most despotic countries have strong democratic movements which are supressed by the government, often with support and aid from the US government. Liberals would prefer to suspend aid to dictatorial regimes and let countries choose their own fate rather than impose a foreign ideology.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Politics on Campus
In recent days I've been bombarded by the notion that young conservatives are somehow repressed in their freedom of speech.
The hysterical right-wing press is especially obsessed with this idea. I remember one National Review article which declared college campuses 'places of dangerous unreality'. Their prime example? Most of the students they surveyed believed in evolution and global warming, but not that Iraq had WMDs. The horror.
Well, it isn't true. Not only are Republican clubs as well-funded as Democratic ones (the board of 'ultraliberal' Brandeis University just gave it's GOP group $7,000 for a single speaker) but the economics department of every university I've ever seen teaches nothing but pure free-market capitalism. My own econ textbook dismisses Socialism and Social Democracy in a single sentence.
Granted, colleges might be a bit more culturally sensitive than the outer world, but that's what happens when you have thousands of people of all races, classes, rleigions, and sexual orientations gathered in one place. I suppose reactionaries have a right to be close-minded, but that certainly doesn't make me respect them.
The hysterical right-wing press is especially obsessed with this idea. I remember one National Review article which declared college campuses 'places of dangerous unreality'. Their prime example? Most of the students they surveyed believed in evolution and global warming, but not that Iraq had WMDs. The horror.
Well, it isn't true. Not only are Republican clubs as well-funded as Democratic ones (the board of 'ultraliberal' Brandeis University just gave it's GOP group $7,000 for a single speaker) but the economics department of every university I've ever seen teaches nothing but pure free-market capitalism. My own econ textbook dismisses Socialism and Social Democracy in a single sentence.
Granted, colleges might be a bit more culturally sensitive than the outer world, but that's what happens when you have thousands of people of all races, classes, rleigions, and sexual orientations gathered in one place. I suppose reactionaries have a right to be close-minded, but that certainly doesn't make me respect them.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
The Terminator Lives
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4140446
The US government has authorized $127 billion (billion with a 'b') for fully automated 'robot' soldiers to fight in Iraq and elsewhere.
This has certain advantages, I admit. One loses fewer US troops, and it must inspire street rebels with a sense of frustration to fight robots all day.
But what worries me is, if we send cold automatons to fight real people, the public gets totally seperated from the realities of war. No triggers to pull, no grenades to throw, no buildings to dynamite. Let the machines do it. It's a form of numbing therapy, and it sounds very dangerous.
The US government has authorized $127 billion (billion with a 'b') for fully automated 'robot' soldiers to fight in Iraq and elsewhere.
This has certain advantages, I admit. One loses fewer US troops, and it must inspire street rebels with a sense of frustration to fight robots all day.
But what worries me is, if we send cold automatons to fight real people, the public gets totally seperated from the realities of war. No triggers to pull, no grenades to throw, no buildings to dynamite. Let the machines do it. It's a form of numbing therapy, and it sounds very dangerous.
Gunga Dean
So Howard Dean became DNC chair with little real opposition. Better him than that Republican-in-disguise Simon Rosenberg, or that creepy weirdo Bernie Fowler.
The right-wing press and bloggers have been glooating publicly and quaking privately. They know perfectly well that Dean can inspire the Democrats to action with his fiery spirit and help their grasroots effort with his organizational skills.
Don't believe the GOP when they say 'By choosing Dean, the Democrats have doomed themselves!!!" Remember when it looked like Dean would be the nominee, and all the Republicans said we'd lose if he was nominated? Well, guess what.
The right-wing press and bloggers have been glooating publicly and quaking privately. They know perfectly well that Dean can inspire the Democrats to action with his fiery spirit and help their grasroots effort with his organizational skills.
Don't believe the GOP when they say 'By choosing Dean, the Democrats have doomed themselves!!!" Remember when it looked like Dean would be the nominee, and all the Republicans said we'd lose if he was nominated? Well, guess what.
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