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Wednesday, October 01, 2003 |
The Fall of Milosevic
The Discovery-Times Channel is running an eight part series on the rise and fall of Serbia's Milosevic. This is the kind of stuff I live for and the reason I'm in school. It's also one of the things my ex-boyfriend couldn't stand about me, he'd always be like "Why do you want to watch this stuff?"
8:09:18 PM 
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A Blessing in Disguise
So Arnold may actually win the upcoming California recall election, if the recall actually is approved which it looks like it just may be.
Look on the bright side. Arnold's going to actually have to make hard choices and not just throw out cute campaign slogans based on his movies. Voters tend to project onto a candidate and once they're in office they see the real person. Arnold will have to make some hard choices and is going to piss-off a lot of people.
Arnold is that extreme rarity these days, an actual live, liberal-moderate Republican. This species is endangered due to over-zealous persecution by it's fellow species, the right-wing conservative Republican. Arnold is going to be caught between a rock and a hard place when his fellow Repubs start asking for their usual depressing litany of Inquisition-inspired laws like banning abortions and putting gays in jails. They're presenting a happy face now but wait until he's in office, the fireworks start then!
The legislature in California is Democrat-controlled and this isn't going to change. They'll act as a reality check on all his and Karl Rove's plans so not much will get done.
And last but most certainly not least. Arnold is not a native-born American and thusly is unable to run for President unless the Republicans in Congress run out of presidential candidates in 2008 and try to change the Constitution, always a possibility but highly unlikely. This is his last stop on the American political gravy train.
3:11:35 PM
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Cheater Cheater
I'm not one of those Madonna homos, shrieking and carrying on every time the Material Girl releases a new and more insipid album. Which is why this Smoking Gun piece is so great. Maybe she's not so original after all. I guess homos like myself knew it all along.
10:48:10 AM
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Our Beloved Saddam - No More
The first-grade equivalents of Dick and Jane are Hassan and Amal, shown in one reader happily holding a portrait of Mr. Hussein. Their dialogue begins with Amal saying, "Come, Hassan, let us chant for the homeland and use our pens to write, `Our beloved Saddam.' "
Hassan replies: "I came, Amal. I came in a hurry to chant, `Oh, Saddam, our courageous president, we are all soldiers defending the borders for you, carrying weapons and marching to success.' "
Duly inspired, Amal exclaims, "Let us start our work without delay."
9:40:20 AM
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A Small Price to Pay
I'm going to state something clearly right now. I am a Democrat and not a supporter of George Bush but I do support the President's request for $87 billion in spending for Iraqi and Afghan reconstruction.
I am horrified at the idea, now defeated, that was circulating in the Senate to make Iraq pay for its own reconstruction. Here we are, the most powerful country in the world and we want to force the already poverty-stricken and debt-burdened Iraqi people to pay for the damage we caused to their country and for us to attempt to implement our dream of Iraq as a beacon to the Middle East. The United States and its coalition partners invaded Iraq in an attempt to remake Arab and Islamic society and this is a goal I support. However you cannot force the Iraqi people to now foot the bill for Halliburton and the other corporations who are part of the recontruction effort. I am surprised that the anti-debt activists who scream so loundly over African third-world debt aren't up in arms over this new proposal to burden every Iraqi with more debt.
Imagine if after WWII we had forced the Germans and Japanese to repay the United States for reconstruction efforts in those countries? What might have happened? The best example is what happened to Germany after WWI, when it was burdened with huge reparation claims from France and other countries. Germany was never able to get its economy off the ground and this led to the rise of Fascism and then WWII. Look at the rewards of the Marshall Plan after WWII, a free Europe working toward unity, civil societies that can partner with the US in fighting terrorism and most importantly a Europe which has gone without war for the longest time ever in its history.
Spending $20 billion on reconstruction and civil society efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan is a small price to pay for the future. Doing nothing or worse, forcing these poor nations to foot the bill is immoral. Stop playing politics with this money and fully fund Iraqi and Afghan reconstruction efforts.
9:28:19 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Shane Hensinger.
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