Posted by Timothy,
11:04 PM
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Old-Europe and Democrats These two paragraphs at the end of a BBC article on Cheny's speech to the WEF caught my eye:
Eva Biaudet, a Finnish MP and former health minister, said the vice president had failed to touch upon key issues like "poverty, injustice and development", while she was shocked by what she called Mr Cheney's "militaristic view of how to get democracy."
US Congressman Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said that while he agreed with the basic sentiment of Mr Cheney's remarks, "he did not do well in addressing the issues that actually bother people ... like how unilateral US action fits in with the concept of collegiality" set out in the speech.
Posted by Nikhil,
8:20 AM
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Friday, January 23, 2004 Bribery The anti-capitalist, corporation hating, progress-and-liberty defying Wall Street Journal broke this story:
Halliburton told the Pentagon that two employees took up to $6 million in kickbacks in return for awarding a Kuwaiti company with lucrative work supplying U.S. troops.
It's a subscription only link, and right now the only other one I can find is Al-Jazeera.
Posted by Nikhil,
4:13 PM
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This Ain't How It's Supposed To Work, Folks
President Bush installed Mississippi Judge Charles Pickering Sr. on a federal appeals court last week, bypassing Democratic opposition by acting while Congress was in recess. Sen. Charles Schumer, one of the Democrats who had blocked a confirmation vote on Pickering for three years, called the recess appointment “a finger in the eye.” Democrats said Pickering had shown bias against blacks on and off the bench—he once reduced the sentence of a man who burned a cross near the home of an interracial couple. Bush said the critics had unfairly smeared a good man. “If he were given a vote, he would be confirmed,” Bush said. Pickering can serve until the next Congress convenes, in January 2005.
Please delay any mewling about the injustice of blocking confirmation votes until a Democrat is in the Whitehouse.
Posted by T. Wood,
2:23 PM
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Emmett goes politically correct
With leaving FIRE, Emmett Hogan seems to have lost hold of reason. I'm basing this on Emmett's post following the information contained in this dartlog post by Nathaniel Ward:
Jeering at Bush The Young Democrats are hosting an event tonight in Rocky 1 "to jeer at President Bush while he stumbles through his last State of the Union address." How respectful.
Oh no! The Democrats are getting together to jeer Bush! *Why* else would the Young Dems sponsor an event in which they got together to watch the State of the Union? If Ward wants to note how the Young Dems are not respectful, fine. The Young Democrats' job is NOT to be respectful towards President Bush. Emmett says in response to Ward's post:
Re: Jeering at Bush That's utterly disgraceful. Whoever is responsible for that should resign immediately. Dartmouth Democrats, you should repudiate this.
Utterly disgraceful? If I were the Democrats, I would embrace it. Emmett is simply being politically correct, emphasis on 'political'. He does not like other people's political opinions, and the disrespect that flows from those opinions. So he screams for immediate resignation in a more knee-jerk fashion than many of the 'minority' activists Emmett made fun of while at Dartmouth. He has no leg to stand on here. This is idiotic because it contradicts what he has claimed to stand for. Emmett likes to say that no one has a right to be offended, but he seems to make a special exception for white Republicans.
Perhaps he can explain himself. I don't see how. If there are inappopriate forms of disrespect of the President, this note did not cross it. It is not like the Young Dems said something like: 'Come watch the cokehead rape our decency and kill the truth with his SOTU'. They said we are going to jeer the President. That purpose in itself fits perfectly with the mission of Young Democrats.
Posted by Timothy,
2:07 PM
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Wednesday, January 21, 2004 Kerry has 10 point lead in NH !?! Drudge links to this Boston Herald article on the newspaper's new poll results:
Sen. John F. Kerry has catapulted into a 10-point New Hampshire lead six days before the nation's first primary, bouncing out of Iowa and over longtime frontrunner Howard Dean, according to a new Boston Herald poll.
The Massachusetts senator leads Dean 31 percent to 21 percent, with a slipping Wesley K. Clark at 16 percent after skipping the Iowa caucuses.
Sen. John Edwards is in fourth place with 11 percent, followed by Sen. Joseph Lieberman with 4 percent. Rev. Al Sharpton and Rep. Dennis Kucinich continue to barely register.
Posted by Timothy,
8:31 PM
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Benny Morris' interview with Ha'aretz Israeli historian Benny Morris has a new book coming out elaborating on his research, which he claims shows that the Zionists did cruel deeds in 1948 to expel the Palestinians from certain areas. This has been a controversial claim, one usually brought up by people claiming that Israel has no right to exist. But Morris also claims that Isreal could only have been founded this way, so the Zionist actions were therefore justified, as Israel has a right to exist. (Note this is a different claim than simply saying that in the course of founding Israel, Zionists committed (avoidable?) atrocities. It is a different claim than saying that whatever the circumstances of Israel's founding, Isreal has a right to exist now.) Morris' moral logic of the 'ends justifies the means' (even at the time it occurs) is frightening. I'm trying to think how much Morris' talk of existential threats is like Carl Schmitt's friend/enemy distinction.
There are some morally chilling statements by Morris about how "There are circumstances in history that justify ethnic cleansing" and how Ben-Gurion supposedly advocated transfer, but how "The non-completion of the transfer was a mistake."
Don't rely on my rough, selective blog post: this interview is a must-read in its entirety.
[Edited to remove stuff not written by me that was meant to quoted in a further post]
Posted by Timothy,
6:13 PM
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Native American Tribes and Banishment as a Punishment This New York Times article focuses on how banishment is used as one method of attempting to deal with drug problems. (via isthatlegal?)
Posted by Timothy,
5:55 PM
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Ridiculously Silly SOTU speech
But let us be candid about the consequences of leaving Saddam Hussein in power. We're seeking all the facts. Already, the Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activitiesand significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations. Had we failed to act, the dictatator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day.
Posted by Timothy,
5:30 PM
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Monday, January 19, 2004 Iowa Predictions?
My guess is that Kerry wins by a very small margin, but only because of the 2nd Choice voters. I think the anti-Dean attacks are finally coming home to roost.
And so long Mr. Gephardt, thanks for uh...the great effort.
Here's the latest numbers (until 10pm tonight when we'll know for real):
Posted by Dan,
4:55 PM
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Sunday, January 18, 2004 2020 Democrats presents: STATE THIS!
Here's another shameless promotional posting:
Al Franken Responds to George W. Bush's State of the Union Address
On Tuesday, January 20th, leading progressive commentator, best-selling author and comedian Al Franken responds to President Bush's 2004 State of the Union address in a live, national conference call with young Americans, following the official Democratic Party response.
Join 2020 Democrats at parties around the country to hear a visionary leader (as well as the President of the United States) discuss the State of the Union.
Visit www.2020democrats.org for a listing of parties in your area, or contact members@2020democrats.org for more information.
