What Is Your Congressman doing?
Here’s one of the reasons we desperately need campaign finance reform:
World Watching And Politics
I Used To Make Fun Of Rick Steves
I used to make fun of Rick Steves. No more!
Here are a few gems from a Salon.com interview just in case you don’t want to read to the end:
Salon: “Steves wants Americans to get over themselves. He wants us to please shed our geographic ego. Everybody should travel before they vote,” he has written.”
So if McCain and Palin had won, what would we have seen abroad?”
Steves: “More and more Americans wearing Canadian flags”
LOL. During 7 years of near constant travel, I used to say I was from Canada. My husband used to say he was from Iceland. I always said I wanted a T-shirt that said in 6 languages: “I didn’t vote for Bush.” Election night there were parties all over Mexico. Now they are watching us.
Steves: “As a travel writer, I get to be the provocateur, the medieval jester. I go out there and learn what it’s like and come home and tell people truth to their face. Sometimes they don’t like it. But it’s healthy and good for our country to have a better appreciation of what motivates other people. The flip side of fear is understanding. And you gain that through travel.”
What’s the most important thing people can learn from traveling?
Steves: “A broader perspective. They can see themselves as part of a family of humankind. It’s just quite an adjustment to find out that the people who sit on toilets on this planet are the odd ones. Most people squat. You’re raised thinking this is the civilized way to go to the bathroom. But it’s not. It’s the Western way to go to the bathroom. But it’s not more civilized than somebody who squats. A man in Afghanistan once told me that a third of this planet eats with spoons and forks, and a third of the planet eats with chopsticks, and a third eats with their fingers. And they’re all just as civilized as one another.”
The “ugly American” thing is associated with how big your country is. There are not just ugly Americans, there are ugly Germans, ugly Japanese, ugly Russians. Big countries tend to be ethnocentric. Americans say the British drive on the “wrong” side of the road. No, they just drive on the other side of the road. That’s indicative of somebody who’s ethnocentric. But it doesn’t stop with Americans. Certain people, if they don’t have the opportunity to travel, always think they’re the norm. I mean, you can’t be Bulgarian and think you’re the norm.
It’s interesting: A lot of Americans comfort themselves thinking, “Well, everybody wants to be in America because we’re the best.” But you find that’s not true in countries like Norway, Belgium or Bulgaria. I remember a long time ago, I was impressed that my friends in Bulgaria, who lived a bleak existence, wanted to stay there. They wanted their life to be better but they didn’t want to abandon their country. That’s a very powerful Eureka! moment when you’re traveling: to realize that people don’t have the American dream. They’ve got their own dream. And that’s not a bad thing. That’s a good thing.
That is certainly true of many people I have talked to around the world and most people I talk to in Mexico who have migrated to the north. The fruit seller speaks a little English. I ask if he has ever worked in the north. Yes, he and others say. Three years. Six years. Ten years, the guy in the tiny mountain village 7 hours from the nearest town in Guatemala says. The guy on the corner of my block whose wife sells tamales worked in the U.S. 30 years. But eventually they usually come back. If given an economic choice they would choose to stay in their own country where they can enjoy their own language, their own culture…and their families. One of my eureka moments. Read More
Critical Thinking Takes A Blow
Greenwald, in Salon.com, describes how the Obama administration has passed the loyalty test when it allowed Charles W. Freeman Jr. to step away Tuesday from an appointment to chair the National Intelligence Council — which oversees the production of reports that represent the view of the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies. Grrrrrrr!
Says Greenwald: “In the U.S., you can advocate torture, illegal spying, and completely optional though murderous wars and be appointed to the highest positions. But you can’t, apparently, criticize Israeli actions too much or question whether America’s blind support for Israel should be re-examined.”
Freeman later said in an email, referring to what he called “the Israel Lobby:” “The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views.” One result of this, he said, is “the inability of the American public to discuss, or the government to consider, any option for US policies in the Middle East opposed by the ruling faction in Israeli politics.”
The Enemy That Almost Isn’t
Iran: The Enemy That Almost Isn’t
Posted: 23 Feb 2009 02:00 PM PST
Crooks And Liars.com
“One of the things that I’ve found most disconcerting about American news coverage of Iran is the complete disconnect between what our own (and international) intelligence reports say and the almost rapturous assurance by the media and public officials that Iran is heading full bore towards our nuclear annihilation. Sean Paul Kelly @ The Agonist:
The Financial Times is reporting today that Iran has enough uranium for a bomb! Oh dear. Except their reporting is very, very lacking in the physics and engineering department.
Here’s what El Baradei recently said about Iran and the bomb:
SZ: In your report it says that Iran is gaining an ever greater mastery of uranium enrichment. Can the USA and Israel accept the fact that Iran is on the threshold of becoming a virtual nuclear power?
ELBARADEI: The question is, what can they do? What are the alternatives to direct negotiations? As long as we are monitoring their facilities, they cannot develop nuclear weapons. And they still do not have the ingredients to make a bomb overnight.
How hard is it to google this sh*t?
Update: As Paul Kerr, from Total WonKerr, just wrote to me in an email: “Here’s the number of weapons you can make with LEU: zero.” Any questions?
Hurts your “Oooh…be scared of the bogeyman” fear-mongering when you inject actual facts and science into it, doesn’t it? Whirled View and my buddy Cernig look further.
Douglas Saunders at The Globe and Mail looks at how the way we view Iran affects our attitude towards them:
What if the world’s biggest threat, instead of growing in size and menace, simply vanished?
Imagine if Iran, after years of extremism, found itself led by a president who had been elected on a platform of women’s rights, a free press, foreign investment and closer relations with the United States and other Western countries.
Imagine if, in response, the U.S. government made a public, formal apology for the 1953 Central Intelligence Agency overthrow of Iran’s elected government, the act that had sent the country on the path to extremism in the first place.
Imagine if the Iranian people then began holding pro-U.S. demonstrations.
And imagine if that moderate Iranian leader offered to accept peace with Israel, to permanently halt funding of Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas and to submit fully to inspections as it abandons any nuclear-weapons programs in exchange for better relations with America.
Ah, imagine. It could never be so easy. But wait. Don’t I recall something from my pile of newspaper clippings? Ah yes, here it is, and not even yellowed. Amazing how fast we forget things.
Mohammad Khatami, the pro-Western reformist, was elected in 1997.
Madeleine Albright, the U.S. secretary of state, issued the big apology to Iran in March of 2000. “Certainly, in our view, there are no obstacles that wise and competent leadership cannot remove,” she said. “As some Iranians have pointed out, the United States has cordial relations with a number of countries that are less democratic than Iran.”
The pro-American demonstrations, by all reports genuine (and unpunished), took place over several days in 2003. In that spring, Mr. Khatami sent a Swiss official to Washington to make the peace offer. In exchange for recognizing Israel, cutting off Hamas and proving it had abolished any nuclear-weapons plans, Iran wanted an end to sanctions, normal diplomatic relations with the U.S. and recognition of its role in the region.
So what happened? Well, nothing. George W. Bush was president, the Iraq war was just approaching the “mission accomplished” phase, and nobody in the White House thought it would look good to make peace with Iran, a country that only the year before had been made a rhetorical component in Mr. Bush’s “axis of evil.”
As one State Department official directly involved with the Iranian offer told me, “It was like we missed the biggest Middle East peace opportunity of the decade, just so we could keep saying ‘axis of evil.’”[..]
It was physicist Werner Heisenberg who found that the act of observing can affect the nature of the thing being observed. It is likely that simply by looking at Iran as a threat, we’ve made it one. Look again, and it might change.
Maybe it’s time to start looking at Iran a different way.”
5 Sectys of State Advise Hillary
Here are some criteria offered by the LA Times by which to judge how Hillary, under Obama, will be doing in the next 4 years. After reading “Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins, however, I can think of a lot of others.
George Shultz, James Baker, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell offer their views.
Hillary Rodham Clinton will have no shortage of issues to take on as secretary of State. She steps into the job amid a global economic meltdown and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On top of that, she must address the rising tensions between India and Pakistan, and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while managing complex relations with Russia and China. And there are the perennial issues of hunger and disease in Africa, drugs in Latin America and the nuclear threat worldwide. How can one person manage it all?
Times editorial writer Marjorie Miller asked five former secretaries of State what advice they had for Clinton in her new job. What follows are edited transcripts of their counsel.
Nobody In Charge in Thailand
Protesters have taken over the International airport and a smaller domestic airport in Bangkok and are demanding the Prime Minister, Somchai Wongsawat, resign, which he has refused to do even after months of demonstrations and violence in Bangkok. Protesters are refusing to negotiate with the government and have promised to stay until the “final battle.”
“A state of emergency has been declared at both Suvarnabhumi and the smaller, domestic Don Mueang airport, which the anti-government People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) have taken over.”
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7756050.stm
The previous corrupt Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, was overthrown in a military coup in 2006 and replaced with a “proxy” government. Thaksin has been indicted for massive corruption and last I heard he was in exile in China because the UK wouldn’t accept him.
What the BBC doesn’t say is that the new PM, Somchai, is Thaksin’s brother-in-law. He is holed up in Chiang Mai which is the Thaksin family home town and where he has a base of support because Thaksin doled out a few baht when he was PM to small farmers who now think he is wonderful.
However, the “elite” in Bangkok, who know what is going on, doesn’t think he is wonderful. The BBC says: “The PAD is a loose grouping of royalists, businessmen and the urban middle class opposed to Mr Thaksin.” Well, this is not a very good description. It also includes respected statesmen, university professors and students. And if the truth were known…probably the revered King who everyone thinks “whispered” his support of the 2006 coup.
“The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville in Bangkok says that Mr Somchai has already lost the confidence of his army chief, Gen Anupong Paochinda, and rumours of (another) coup are circling in the capital.” The head of Thailand’s powerful army has called for a dissolution of Parliament and new elections.
What the BBC doesn’t say is that the army is refusing to move against the protesters.
The chief of police has been demoted, the BBC says, “to what officials said was an “inactive post” in the prime minister’s office. No official reason was given for Gen Patcharawat Wongsuwanbut’s demotion, but government spokesman Nattawut Saikuar suggested to Thai TV that it was in connection with the protest crisis.”
Come on, I don’t think it would have been difficult to fact check why the police chief was demoted. Everyone knows anyway. So much for the BBC.
My husband, who lives in Thailand says: “Politically hot in Thailand. Nobody in charge. The PM (Thaksin ‘s brother-in-law) attempting to mobilize police and army to open the airport but they refuse to intervene. Can you imagine a head-of-state directing his armies to action and they refuse???? Big comment on the base of power.”
We Thailand watchers (my son and his Thai wife live on Koh Samui in the south) are fervently hoping this doesn’t end in bloodshed like the October 14, 1973 Uprising and the October 6, 1976 Massacre.
Why Did The Mumbai Attacks Happen?
One of my favorite people, Deepak Chopra, explains the “war on terror” in the most lucid way I have heard yet.
The Rest of the Story
Description of an altercation between a communist group (FPR) and the anarchists after the march commemorating the November 25th 2006 repression by police. When I saw that these groups, among many others, were lining up behind the teachers during the strike of 2006, I knew there was going to be trouble because they all have their own agendas.
from an expat on the Oaxaca Study Action Group Internet Forum:
“I get the sense that no one is happy with what happened at the march. The good things were the turnout and return of Dra. Bertha. The bad were the disagreements regarding tactics that led to physical encounters and the FPR vs anarchists nonsense in the zocalo. I firmly believe that based on my experiences here, the vast majority of the libertarian punks are not paid government agents. I think it’s dangerous to propose that they are, given the seriousness of the charge, because: unless they read NarcoNews or OSAG they’re unaware of the charges being leveled against them, and, how does one disprove the claim that they’re a government agent? David Venegas, even after spending a year in jail, is still accused of that. Black blocs, graffiti and property destruction are common features of most mass movements all over the world. Of course the capitalist press and fascist government are going to raise hackles about it, that’s their job.
This is not, however, to say that there weren’t infiltrators yesterday. Yet, they’re easy to spot based on their dress, the fact that no one knows them, their actions (for example, yesterday they were smoking weed during the march and one of them painted “David is my leader”, which no anarchist would write and plays right into the gov’t’s and press’s line). As well, the locations targeted – Comex, PRI offices, state gov’t offices, and Chedraui – are all viable targets if one is an anti-capitalist. Working class people’s homes and business didn’t get messed with.
The scene at [the new] Chedraui Market [during their open house] was particularly disappointing. The teachers’ “protest police” lined up in front of Chedraui, trying to keep it from being damaged. It reminded me of “pacifists” lining up to protect Nike and Starbucks in the US during the WTO protest in Seattle 1999. This led to pushing and shoving between teachers and anarchists, and between anarchist and photographers (who were screaming at the anarkos: “We’re going to find out who you are! We’re going to get you!” One friend was randomly assaulted by a photographer out of nowhere).
As far as I know, the teachers’ leadership and the FPR bilaterally declared there would be no graffiti, masks, or property destruction. How they feel they have the right to state that and undemocratically determine the tactics of a broad movement, and try to undemocratically enforce them (by guarding Chedraui of all places for crissakes!) is beyond me. While Chepi may be better than those before, the teachers still don’t seem to me to be doing much, nor do I put much hope in them. They only come out in force when instructed to, probably mainly because they take attendance at these things. Other teachers not marching with Section 22 got on the sound systems behind Section 22 and denounced them for betraying the movement that arose initially to defend them and for their complacency.
I did not see the fight between the FPR and anarchists in the zocalo. My understanding as related to me (admittedly by only one side on the issue), was the David was being heckled while he spoke, while others were shouting to let him speak. An FPR man hit an libertarian woman on the head with one of the sticks they have their flags on, then punched her in the face. Then libertarians got hold of an FPR flag and lit it on fire. Then mayhem broke out. At least one libertarian had to be taken to the hospital after being hit in the head with a flag stick.
All the media and even Radio Planton, blamed it all on David. At least the teachers, though condemning everything that happened, declined to condemn any particular group. Regardless, as I said, no one is happy with what happened. Well, perhaps the FPR is. I think it shows that the next APPO congress really needs to happen and really needs to be democratic. Many of the speakers in the zocalo at least mentioned the former, though groups such as the FPR and some in the teachers leadership are more interested in excluding VOCAL and other libertarian tendencies in the APPO congress than creating a real movement.”
My three cents from my frustrated, biased perspective,
and “Here’s VOCAL’s communique regarding yesterday. In brief, it states that the disunity has been caused by the FPR – primarily for running Zenen Bravo for congress and their meddling in Section 22. It states they had nothing to do with the property destruction but they understand it. It states that FPR started the fight after David was not permitted to speak and a libertarian woman told an FPR man to be quiet and be respectful. And that Section 22 has the responsibility and duty to convene a democratic assembly to plan for the second APPO congress.”
Letter From An Expat With Another View of Mexico
My Mexican-American friend moved to Mexico a few years ago while working on her husband’s papers to legalize him to work in the States…which is taking a lot of time. This was her recent email:
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL, Vol. VII
Now, I know Why They Jump The Wall…I Wanna Jump The Wall
And – Yes – We – Are – Still – Here
I was just telling a friend, back in the States, how waking up here I will sometimes think to myself, as I take in my surroundings, “shit, I’m still here.” You know those mornings, where as soon as you open your eyes, you say to yourself, “man, it sucks to be me.” Well, yesterday was definitely one of those days. And, unfortunately not just for myself, but also for quite a number of people in my husband’s family, namely my mom-in-law.
My husband’s brother called us about 10 a.m. He was frantic. Evidently, Josefina had just gotten a phone call stating that my husband had been kidnapped and they were demanding a ransom of $50,000 Pesos, or they were going to kill him! They put some guy on the phone who told my mother-in-law he was her son. She asked him, “son, where are you?” This same fucking bastard responded, SOBBING, “Mother, I can’t tell you because I’m bound and they have my eyes covered.” The so-called kidnapper got back on the phone, and she informed him that she didn’t have $50,000 Pesos. The caller told her that if she didn’t pay the money they would murder her son. She simply stated that would be on his conscience, and that she didn’t have that kind of money and there was nothing she could do. He asked her again if she were going to pay the ransom. She repeated her response to his demand. He finally yelled at her that she was a fucking bitch and hung up!
In her hysteria she couldn’t recall our phone numbers. She ended up calling her eldest son. He spoke with his mother and calmed her down as best he could.
My husband is the youngest of three sons. He has been back home here in Mexico for almost three years after an absence of almost 11. When we first got here, in February 2006, the first thing his mother said was that she couldn’t believe her eyes that her baby was home. She said that she never expected to see him again. They speak or see one another on a daily basis.
My mother-in-law is 75-years-old, in failing health, and lives alone. We live minutes from her house, but she had no idea that this was not true at that moment in time. Put yourself in her place. Can you even imagine getting such a phone call about a loved one, and all that you would feel, think, experience? I can’t imagine. I don’t even want to.
My husband spoke with the police and they say that it is a local and national epidemic: Secuestros Telefonicos. Translation: Telephone Kidnappings. They usually originate in prisons in the neighboring state of Mexico, in and around Mexico City. Our very own landlord’s mother just two weeks ago received a phone call from someone stating that they had kidnapped one of her sons. All of her children are adults living on their own. She deposited $15,000 Pesos in ransom money into a bank account that she was directed to, which of course was under a phony name. Thankfully all of her children were eventually accounted for and found to be safe, and the kidnapping to be bogus. We’re told that she and one of her daughters are showing signs of extreme mental trauma. Read More
The World Celebrates!
I am so relieved! I am in Mexico now and didn’t have TV but I got a text message from Barack at midnight (you could sign up for text messages on his web site) that said “We just made history. All of this happened because you gave your time, talent and passion to this campaign. All of this happened because of you. Thanks. Barack.”
Lovely.
“In this election, the Americans not only chose a president, but also their identity,” said Dominique Moïsi, a French political analyst. “And now we have to think, too, about our identity in France — it’s the most challenging election ever. We realize we are late, and America has regained the torch of a moral revolution.” This from France!
I am active on some couchsurfing.com forums. This morning I was greeted with many happy posts from around the world so I will cross-post some of them here:
From Germany: “I’m happy to see that after being the punching bag of the world for 8 years you’ve now made it so clear that you intent to restore some reputation now. Especially since I don’t have to excuse my liking for you weirdos when I’m with my European friends and you can’t just accuse me of typical European Anti Americanism when I criticize you flaw or make fun of them or you! HA-HAAA;-D
(Can I put back my “Abulf Gayb” picture now???) Take care! / Maat et joot!
Belgium: Congrats to all of you!
this is a great way to wake up in Europe and hear this news. I am SO happy!!! Wish I were still there but already here I feel the vibe of this news in my heart and in the air. YAAY!!
Congratulations from France. 😉 I raise my glass of wine to your new president.
I don’t have much more to say, but I think it’s enough.
Belgium: I can’t believe the news today
I don’t wanna close my eyes
Don’t make it go away!
How long, how long have we sung this song?
CONGRATULATIONS! Still can’t believe it…
This is just wonderful!
Love you all!
Lieke, Peter and kids, Belgium – Europe
Turkey: Congratulations to all of you.. You are all silent I
guess you are all partying.. we watch all those
celebrations and excitement in America.. and very
happy for you and for the World.. Obama made an
excellent speech after winning, I know everything will
not be perfect just because he won, but at least we
have ‘hope’ that it will..it is amazing that America elected its first black
president, it is amazing that America elected someone
born from a Muslim father as a president, American
people destroyed all taboos and I am very proud of
them and very thankful to them.. I think American
people took a huge step to correct America’s bad image
created by the Bush Administration.
Congratulations again and thank you..
I hope Obama administration will bring peace to the
World and wealth/welfare to the US.
I am happy:) all the best
Belgium: Well, I am hoping for a bit more sensible US policies. The focus will ofc still be on US interests but maybe the next administration will understand that what the current administration did pretty much went against those interests. We’ll see what he wants to do and what he can do with a massive deficit, recession and the composition of the houses.
France: SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I want to share my joy and my hopes about the future of THE WORLD!!!!
OBAMA i’m with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOVE for every american citizens!!!!!!!!!!
kreen 😉 😉 😉
In the meantime, we can say goodbye to Palin here:
Laughingnomad 