Lalo Alcaraz on Schwarzenegger’s $15…
Bob Morris @ Mar 3rd 2004 18:48 - Category: Unfiled ;
Archive for March 3rd, 2004
For the Bushies, a long-term…
Bob Morris @ Mar 3rd 2004 00:05 - Category: Unfiled ;
For the Bushies, a long-term view is 5 minutes
Rebel leader declares himself head of Haiti’s military
U.S. sees no rebel role in new Haiti government.
Uh huh. And if the rebels just ignore D.C., then what? Invasion?
If you depose the leader of a country falling into chaos when rebels are attacking the capitol, it does not take a deeply penetrating intellect to determine that, with no functioning government remaining, this may only make things worse - much worse.
But such long-term thinking appears to have been beyond Dubya and pals. Instead they pulled their tired old Big Dick routine, something that sure isn’t working in Iraq, and I doubt it’ll work in Haiti either.
Braganza, a leftie blog, posits Aristide had turned rogue and was slipping in power hence we did the right thing by doing him in. Yet this view differs little from that of George Bush, as it assumes the US is destined to - and indeed, supposed to - meddle in any country anytime - AKA Manifest Destiny, white man’s burden, “making the world safe for democracy”, etc.
Do you feel safer now that the US has destabilized Haiti even more than it was? I didn’t think so.
And if we hate Bad Governments With Evil Leaders so much, why aren’t we acting against Burma? Just wondering…
PS The Independent Institute sums it up well:
When Americans see unrest, violence, rebellion or civil war in other nations on the TV news, they often rightly sympathize with the plight of the foreign citizens put at risk. Yet news is well, news, not history. Americans rarely realize that their own government, somewhere along the line, most likely contributed to the crisis du jour.
The United States is a superpower that meddles frequently—either overtly or covertly—in the business of nations all over the world. Americans just assume that such interventions have a positive effect in the countries concerned. All to often, however, what seemed to U.S. policymakers like a good idea at the time turns out to be counterproductive, and sometimes disastrous, in the long-term.
Green mayor charged with 19…
Bob Morris @ Mar 3rd 2004 00:02 - Category: Unfiled ;
Green mayor charged with 19 criminal counts for gay weddings
New Paltz NY: The village’s mayor was charged Tuesday with 19 criminal counts for performing weddings for gay couples, an act of defiance that thrust the small community into the center of the national debate over same-sex marriage.
The 26-year-old Green Party mayor said he will plead innocent at his court hearing Wednesday and that he would still go through with his plans to marry as many as two dozen gay couples Saturday.
California Green registrations shrink
Bob Morris @ Mar 3rd 2004 00:01 - Category: Unfiled ;
California Green registrations shrink
The number of registered Greens in California, for the first time in a quite a while, has dropped a bit.
Date Greens %
Jan 2 162,354 1.086%
Feb 17 157,749 1.045%
That’s a 2.8 % decrease in 2 1/2 months.
This is probably due to Greens re-registering as Democrats to vote in the primary. The question being, of course, will they come back?
Many will be surprised that California Greens are barely 1% of registered voters - yet routinely poll much higher than that in actual elections.
Update: From a public Green listserv posting
As observed, we dropped from 162,354 to 157,749 members (a loss of 4,605) between January 2nd and February 17th, a drop of 2.84%. Before that, we dropped from 165,722 to 162,354 between September 30th and January 2nd (a loss of 3,368), a drop of 2.03%.
Between September 30th and February 17th - 129 days - we lost 7,973 members, or 4.81%.
Castro TNG?
Bob Morris @ Mar 3rd 2004 00:00 - Category: Unfiled ;
Castro TNG?
Venezuela recall vote on Chavez defeated!
As predicted here on Saturday: “The elections council ruled that government opponents lacked enough signatures to force a recall referendum against President Hugo Chavez”, sparking massive protests both for and against Chavez.
Chavez, in the eyes of some, is gaining almost mythical stature. The Bushies failed in their coup attempt against him, he’s still president, and still popular (at least in some circles in Venezuela!)
He’s proven he can survive, lead, and has been rallying much of the Latin America left as he ignores and openly defies the Bush cabal - and has been getting away with it for quite some time too.
Shades of Castro…
