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TechnoratiA letter to America: You Cannot be Serious
Dear America, Before you say it, I know: presumptuous. No one can speak to a multitude or to a nation, even if your presidential candidates entertain the fantasy. The United States is too big, too diverse, to allow that sort of intimacy. Is it even, from sea to shining sea, a single nation? Does New Hampshire speak much, or clearly, to New Mexico?
So many cultures, races, nuances. Too many variations from the modern media homogeneity norm, or even, dare I say it, from your cherished self-image. You are still, as Europeans too easily forget, a free association of states, each of them proud, each distinct. Some once styled themselves sovereign; most are jealous still of their remaining rights. That can't be easy.
You disagree among yourselves, too, over what America is and what that means. Even at this distance, we pick up the chatter. We glimpse a few of your tensions. Even your "culture wars" have become a cliché in our discourse. We miss the important details, but as often as not we get it. After all, we pay more attention to you than you ever do to us.
Sorry. Did that sound antipathetic, as in "anti-American"? Let's deal with that. I've said a few things down the years. It is likely that I will say a few more. You have a reserve currency, extraordinary military strength, and an unsurpassed cultural reach: people notice. If they have any sense, they also notice that America is no sort of monolith. But when things are done, by a democracy and in a people's name, we call that "America".
The irony is, in any case, that you are not beset on all sides. A great many foreign people spend a great deal of time defending your actions. Sometimes, for my money, the very depth of their loyalty is suspicious. Yours is not their country. I'm more of the Bush-didn't-win-Florida school, but I do not hold every last American responsible for the consequences of a convenient (for some) Supreme Court decision. That would be like blaming me for Tony Blair. (And no, I did not vote for Trusted Ally Number One. I like to think I saw the Blessed Cheesemaker coming).
But you still think the world is against you? Try thinking, if you can, as a Russian thinks. Their country, right or wrong. Their patriotic dead. Their great lost empire, their exceptionalism, their certainty that dark and alien others always wish them ill. So how does a Russian view the world when tiny Georgia fires rockets "pre-emptively" on tinier South Ossetia and finds America taking the side of the rocketman "in freedom's name"? Let's just say that our Russian fails to share your perspective.
Or how about a Palestinian? The world cries injustice, historic, enduring, and a continuing justification for resistance, none of it pretty. You talk peace, but you say Israel - now where did this phrase come from? - right or wrong. Do the moral calculus. Stinking anti-Semites who would wipe Israel from the map do not justify every action Israel takes. But that is not, as the world hears it, the word from America.
This is not, historically speaking, a big deal. The American Century may well be at an end, with only the debts - unfeasibly big debts - to be settled. The Chinese, the Arabs, the Europeans, even the Russians hold your IOUs. When the money runs out, aircraft carriers are window dressing. Besides, no-one in the British islands is in a position to talk. Our empire was far more reckless than yours has ever been, and we could not hold a blood-red candle to Spain, France, Germany, Holland or even little Belgium. No-one ever gave thanks for having the Russians or the Chinese in charge. These things come and go.
But you say - Kipling and Rhodes would have understood - that you are the last best hope for mankind. Speaker after speaker at the Republican convention, and more than a few at the Democrat equivalent, talked (boasted?) of the greatest nation in the world ever. No precedent. I refer you once more to British imperial history. I also suggest, though, that when such things are said sincerely, certain obligations follow. You enthuse over Sarah Palin instead.
Perhaps, like so many modern politico-media phenomena, that will pass. Over here, after all, we thought George W Bush was the most improbable thing your conservatism could contrive. Shows you what we know. A George Bush who was merely stupid and mendacious seemed the extreme edge of what the presidential process might produce when someone's vital interests were at stake. But what do we bystanders now understand? If polls are to be trusted (another story) Mr Bush is profoundly unpopular while Ms Palin, his spiritual kid sister, is homecoming queen. You can sense our puzzlement.
Our disgust is something that many of you no doubt take for granted. A book-banning, anti-abortion, creationist with scant consciousness, if any, of the outside world is not a brand that travels well. Ms Palin reportedly does not travel at all, save to cross fly over Canada. Her personal life is none of my concern. Her lipstick seems to suit her. But am I truly supposed to believe that she is suited for high office? That, surely, is the argument behind her impressive approval ratings.
But I forget. According to those around Mr John McCain, the official Republican general election candidate, your presidential contest is "not about the issues". Come again? Have you run out of things to talk about, America? I can see that Mr McCain might have a long list of things he would rather not discuss, most of them involving the incumbent with whom he shares a party. But does your polity truly intend to suspend all disbelief, all debate, all thought, because of a well-groomed moose-killer?
They tell me the other guy is struggling to cope with this new fact of political existence. That, I would have thought, was the sole point and purpose of Ms Palin's elevation to the ticket. When you cannot cope with another man's fluency, trust to slogans and big pictures and what cynical men call "perceptions".
Let's be clear about that, too. I am not one of those Europeans who succumb to the charisma of Mr Obama. I have watched Mr Blair work a room. Unfashionably, I thought the Democrats should have stuck with a deplorable Clinton. I also thought the Obama Berlin gig an absurdity. I do not trust anyone who answers "hope" and "change" to every hard question. And I have no belief in an "anti-war" candidate who proposes dusty death without end in Afghanistan.
Mr Obama remains - you know this bit - the first African-American to have a serious hope of becoming president. Yet what do we find? Merely journalists adjusting every too-close-to-call poll in their heads to accommodate their certain knowledge of race in American life. We Europeans, some of us, do not therefore form judgments. This continent invented industrialised racism, and persists with the habit of mind. But seriously: a black man talking seriously or a moose-killer forbidden to attempt coherent speech? And your choice is?
Too close to call. America, that is almost beyond words. I have neither a personal nor a partisan interest. Ms Palin and Mr Obama alike are foreign to me. Yet if Mr Bush has been a dangerous absurdity, what is the latest Republican president-but-one? Since I'm asking the questions, I'll answer.
Ms Palin is a symbol of deep American introversion, of the fact that you have ceased to take yourselves seriously and, more important, don't much care who knows it. Arguments over the relationship between the wider world and your choices have become irrelevant. You have detached yourself, finally, from the global community. This is isolationism as never before conceived. "American" in my life has been lingua franca, for better or ill. Now you talk to yourself.
And you talk, my friends, in the sort of gibberish that once you spurned. It's not about Ms Palin, as such. It is about the process that creates a candidate-grin manipulated to serve darkness, ignorance, fear, a war economy, and the flaunting of stupidity.
Nice going.
191 Comments so far
Show AllThe Brit doesn't get it, eh, well, neither does this American. How on earth can you suppose that we Americans understand this shit either? We're all in the same boat watching this spectacle. We're all on the sidelines watching the idiocy of a government bought and sold, where the only true dealings have to do with the secret top 1 percent and the rest is psychological operations. You wanna know why the Brits and the Americans are befuddled? We're all victims of the the same process that a pickpocket uses: distract and extract.
Anyone read David Brooks this morning? Even conservatives, the ones with two brain cells to rub together, find the Palin choice of concern:
"Experienced leaders can certainly blunder if their minds have rigidified (see: Rumsfeld, Donald), but the records of leaders without long experience and prudence is not good. As George Will pointed out, the founders used the word 'experience' 91 times in the Federalist Papers. Democracy is not average people selecting average leaders. It is average people with the wisdom to select the best prepared."
Love those two last sentences. Now who benefits from having "average" people in office?
Surely not the idiots running Wall Street....
Yes, Clemsy, I did. And I read Will and a few others (not Krauthammer - his name makes me vomit) as well, including Ben Stein. Seems the "intellectual elite" on the right finally has to admit that their party has abandoned all sense of right and wrong. Palin's selection seems to have put a wedge between the uneducated right-wing religious true believers and the intellectual Republican apologists, who were able to put up with a lot as long as their stocks were doing well. Brooks has been a water-carrier for the Republicans and their destructive policies forever, and even he is backing off. Maybe it's because disastrous Republican policies and inability to govern are finally reaching into their own wallets - what good is paying less taxes if your capital gains are turning to irrecoverable losses? Why should they continue to support Republicans when their IRAs are in as bad a shape as ours?
I wonder if Kristol will join the doubters. Probably not, as it's only the "intellectuals" so far, and that leaves babblin' Billy out.
Kristol is busy getting a facial and manicure.
Joe
Sometimes that all-too-common British talent for comic understatement can be brilliantly funny as well as add additional witty nuance to a deserving subject of ridicule.
However....as much as I enjoyed Mr. Bell's article and agreed with almost every word, in this instance he would have been better off being a bit more concise in his writing.
To wit- "The American electorate is made up largely of nincompoops, twits and panty-waisted weenies."
That says it all.....and without the excess verbiage.
Yes Mr. Bell has it right, this is a country that cannot be believed by those apart from it. it was forged by revulsion of the Brits and shaped in the later centuries by the Hollywood myth.
I have followed here in the CD Liberal thinking world of thought and have patiently read the thoughts of dreamers, the pseudo intellectuals, and the great scholars who think they have the sort of thinking to be able to help bring this country back from the horrid mess it has become and the abyss it has brought the world.
Those here who offer their great ideas to help us to think more clearly pride themselves that they can influence direction in this plutocracy. None here have touched the central issue, this countries greed, the economy and your 401ks. You have been sold this means of security and you have bought it as good Americans. Most here believe it is your way to survival. But we see time and again that World street cares not a wit for American or human survival. Greed is a very difficult and human characteristic that holds nothing or no one sacred, as of course some of you know.
The essence of the fight for human retrieval and the reestablishment of ethics, morals and purpose, that so many who write her would like to see, is the reason people spend there time reading many of these petty responses to the problems we face. Those who respond to the articles here, written by people who are surely less than the quality of the true thinkers likes Nietzsche, Camus, Dostoevsky and so many others who wrote about human fallibility, the human condition and power, so well.
Those who write here, are people generally frustrated and feel helpless in terms of where we see this entire human global adventure going and see clearly that this American election can possibly hold the seeds to genuine change in this country if not the world. However, many are not fooled by the array of candidates and their claims to complete truth and fairness, as it should be. A healthy pessimism is necessary so long as it is not cynicism.
However the McCain Palin disaster throws all previous pessimism about American politics once and for all out the window to be replaces by cynicism where it should rest. Some of us understand that survival is surely not based in the petty politics practiced here on this blog but a clear recognition that there are people writing whom genuinely care about the sate of this power gone amuck called the USA.
Sadly, we all know that the slate of candidates running leave a great deal to be desired. Yes, they have all dissembled, as politicians are wont to do, in the endless necessity for compromise. One cannot come from the masses, be a politician who aspires to become president of this woebegone culture and not have to assume the sickening compromises that would attract support to continue on the quest and be pure. Impossible! When I think of the charges against Obama that he supported that toad, Joe Lieberman I have to laugh at the simplistic charges and the lack of understanding of what is necessary to be a politician in this country, no soul!
But there are some who hold out the small hope that if Obama, the lesser of all the evils presented to the electorate, somehow becomes president he may become another great man in the office and in effect serve the people, the country and the globe. He is the only one who holds that possibility, without question if we join and accept some of the thinking here. It is so because of his background, his actions in Chicago, despite his missteps and the fact that this is the final chance at survival for the human family!
We must take this chance and hope that the creeping filth that has brought humanity to this pass will not assassinate him; if he truly tries to affect the changes that must take place in this country for it to be able to take the lead in the world once again as it once did, based in truth, and caring and concern for what humanity confronts. The need now, as never before to the present degree, is to help draw the world back from the nightmare now taking place. as we see him withdraw from his principles and his early rhetoric we know that he has had to sell out to the DNC and power politics. However, looking at the republican slate offered to the USA his was a minor aberration.
The climate, energy, food, water, the oceans, forests and so many other issues will require a man that has the youth and the guts to try to bring about the change that is fundamental to his campaign alone, since he has captured the belief of so many that believed it to be impossible. However, in the end it all may be too late!
I all sounds like the same argument--Obama is better than McCain. I know this.
Forgive me for hoping that, after 8 yrs of Dubya, we could do alot better. I'm just extremely disappointed.
Mr. Bell, ever watch Southpark?
The taco craps ice cream.
And that's all you need to know.
Letter to Ian Bell: Butt out, windbag. Sarracuda is our rough ridin' cowgirl from the Golden West. No orange pantsuits and buzzcut hair for her. We have an image of her, standing with Alan Ladd, fighting off the outlaws. Aww..you limpos would never understand.
Yeah you have an "image" all right. Is dat fuh whellin' tough gal going to be smart enough to fix an out control Wall St. that features things like "naked short selling" where you can sell stocks you don't own? That's true BTW, google it if you don't believe me. Will she know the difference between Sunni and Shia and how to extricate us from the middle east rat hole of money and lives?
You should be kicking and screaming harder than anyone Bubba a disproportionate number of our young men and women dying in Iraq for no reason are from southern "red" states. That's YOUR young peoples lives wasted and YOUR tax dollars spent while YOUR economy goes to hell in a handbasket.
But more orange pant suits for everyone else. Close down gitmo. Send Omar Khadr home!
I am sure Palin wears pants in the winter.
And I am not sure that she is fighting them off ... Sarracuda is not a protector, she is one of the bullies.
I understand - you probably see "Dick Cheney in a Gidget suit" as a compliment. You care more about preventing gays from marrying and rape victims from getting abortion than you do about American jobs being shipped off to China or whether one can drink the water.
It's the Stupid, Stupid!
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
SPACE CADET: Excellent post that explains the larger factors at work.
SEE THROUGH BS: Thanks for posting "The list."
ARAQUIN: What if much of Africa was suffering from a collective form of post traumatic stress disorder? The levels of violence are a remnant of being colonized by other, resources raped, dealing with drought and nature's vicissitudes, added to the worst aspects of human nature. People don't just fall to such ruthless barbarism without many causes.
MiMiCCS: I, too, see evidence of an emerging "new world order," and believe progress in that dire direction will occur until 2020 when enough citizens worldwide are able to break their chains, and there begins a more holistic inclusive government arrangement. In a sense, the "bad" guys build some of the infrastructure to make that possible, but in time it WILL serve the interests not of the elites, but of MANKIND, i.e. "the proletariat" or workers, however we want to term "average" citizens who have seen too many of their needs and liberties traded against false bases for trasactions of these kinds.
Siouxrose, I completely agree. And that is why it would IMO be a lot healthier for them to discuss the "what did colonial violence do to our mental health and how can we heal and deal with it now?" than - which is what I have noticed - not really discuss the issue of violence in Africa at all.
They watch atrocities upon atrocities occur - remember that they had something called the African Third World War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Congo_War in the Congo area which probably cost 5 million, I mean 5 million!!! lives fairly recently.
and of course the world barely noticed, since it was "only" Africans.
But nobody is helped, least of all Africans themselves, if they primarily keep blaming those who supplied the weapons for their incessant wars, i.e. the outside world.
Healing is only possible, as we know, with the recognition that you have a problem, as step one. And if your problem has been caused by outside influences, you need to discuss how you want to react to this situation. To keep blaming the outside influence for every crime you commit won't get any person anywhere.
The article seemed fair comment to me till the last when he reverted to the predictable conclusion. Those who favor the destruction of America will no doubt applaud that conclusion.
Palin, I don't know anything about her, but her current popularity you can lay directly at the absurd lies and pitiful personal attacks on her by a media and a bunch of idiomatic Lemmings that for some reason see her as a great threat.
You should find out about her. She might be our president someday.
Joe
All you need to know is that Palin is a book-burning biblical literalist who would force a rape victim to spend nine-odd months as a slave of the state gestating her rapist's child....oh....and she not only uses state power to exact revenge on her former brother-in-law but also to punish those who refuse to aid her legal and ethical violations. And she belives her 'god' wants us to not only to kill Iraqis but to build an Alaskan pipeline.
Yes... you can indeed blame the press for daring to tell the truth in this one rare instance. It surprises me too....I thought they had long ago foregone journalistic responsibilities in order to serve their corporate puppetmasters. Obviously a mistake was made and heads will roll as a consequence.
Do you have a list of the books that Palin banned? Could you publish it here?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/11/politics/animal/main4439414.shtml
Palin's Book-banning Efforts, Redux
By Steve Benen
Sep 11, 2008
(Political Animal) PALIN'S BOOK-BANNING EFFORTS, REDUX.... Here's what we know about Sarah Palin's interest in banning books. Time reported last week that Palin asked the Wasilla librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, about the process for banning library books. Baker was reportedly "aghast" at the question. Soon after taking office, Palin, according to a New York Times report, fired Baker, and news reports from the time indicate that Palin thought Baker hadn't done enough to give her "full support" to the mayor.
Palin reversed course on Baker's dismissal after a local outcry, and later said the discussions about banning books were "rhetorical."
Yesterday, ABC News' Brian Ross moved the ball forward a bit, with an interesting report.
Ross emphasized an angle I previously hadn't heard much about. Palin was elected mayor thanks in large part to the strong backing of her church, the Wasilla Assembly of God, which, right around the time Palin took office, "began to focus on certain books available in local stores and in the town library, including one called 'Go Ask Alice,' and another one written by a local pastor, Howard Bess, called 'Pastor, I am Gay.'"
Palin became mayor, her church was interested in censorship, and soon after, Palin asked a "rhetorical" question about how books might be excluded from the public library. When the librarian resisted, she was, at least initially, fired.
The line from the McCain campaign has been that Palin never had any interest whatsoever in banning library books. That seems increasingly difficult to believe.
Yes yes, very nice. You said she was a book banner. DO YOU HAVE THE LIST OF BOOKS SHE BANNED?
Name, author, ISBN number, etc?
No need, TT, she asked how to go about banning books, a first tenet of fascism. She is then, strictly, a ATTEMPTED book banner, seeing as you want to split hairs. The fact that freedom of speech won out over her desire for censorship does not make her unconstitutional position any more acceptable in our Democracy.
PS - I am always intrigued that those who prefer to parse, disseminate, hair-split, duck the truth and spread and hide behind lies give themselves handles like "TruthTeller".
Ian, you hit the nail on the head: No, we can't be serious because the U.S. is no longer a serious nation. We were once, when things mattered (like the Depression, World War II, the Cold War, the race for space, etc.). Unfortunately, until we are once again forced to start taking things seriously (in the coming economic meltdown, possibly), too many of us will continue acting -- and voting -- in a completely unserious manner. All that matters right now, it seems, is, "Is my cable/satellite working? Is that immigrant-looking person trying to steal my job? How crazy is Britney today? and How much does gas cost?"
Until circumstances force us to become otherwise, the U.S. will keep acting in a supremely unserious way.
Americans must wake up to the reality of the truth. We have become a nation that is more concerned about the Sunday football scores than the state of the economy or the war in Iraq. We must ask the tough questions, to those of both parties who want to want to govern our once proud country. We must demand of or candidates full and complete disclosure of their mental and physical conditions. We have the right to have them both stand up to a group of citizens and answer the questions we all need to know if they are worthy of taking the long forgotten oath to defend the constitution of the United States of America. God Bless America, we need his help more than ever.
Cheer up, progressives, the choice of Sarah Palin is proof that con-servatives are desperate, delusional.
The collapse of the American banks is proof that capitalism doesn't work.
The Russian invasion of Georgia is proof that Reagan didn't win the cold war.
Gay marriage spreading around the world is proof that con-servatives lost the culture war.
Roe vs. Wade is here to stay and yet another proof that con-servatives lost the culture war.
Con-servatives will not get away with stealing elections forever, even if McCain steals this one. So cheer up.
"the choice of Sarah Palin is proof that con-servatives are desperate, delusional"
All the desperation that I'm reading is saying DUMP BIDEN BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!
"What we are is terrified of your adolescent posturing, your elevation of ignorance to a virtue, your bullying, your lack of compassion even for your own compatriots, your pitbull determination to prop up your ridiculous national myth at any expense."
Mr. Bell, being a native here, and having observed US social / political / cultural developments of the past 50 years or so, I think your insight on the current US is quite good.
Nothing maddens me more than the apathy, and sheer ignorance, that can allow a George Bush to become pResident. I'm personally convinced, though, that the US populace will not wise up until the economic or climate pain becomes severe (i.e. gets their attention). I think that will come over the next 15 - 20 years - the pain that is. I'm not sure how the US populace will respond to tell the truth, hopefully it will be a humbling and enlightening experience but you never know.
This country is bizarre politically, and psychotic globally. How many countries are we occupying, bombing, droning, missling, or assasinating in now? I'd say 15 to 20 perhaps. Those are acts that can easily lead to war. Its been going on for fifty plus years now. BushCo doesn't bother trying to hide their warmaking or especially justify their actions these days, they just attack other sovereign nations right and left at will.
sierra7
I agree...and what do we get with the two candidates? Obama gives us a "choice of wars" and McCain "perpetual war." Some choice!
I enjoyed this piece and agreed with many things in it, but I am actually really tired of "holier-than-thou" Europeans painting Americans as idiots. I mean, look at who the Brits have had in power. If it weren't for European support, the United States would not have been able to get away with most of the crimes it has committed in the past century. In the same way that the US uses Israel to do its dirty work in the Middle East, Europeans, with their lovely vacations and high standards of living, use the United States to do their dirty work in the world. Real change begins at home. I could accomplish much less criticizing the Israeli government (as if they really care) than I could by criticizing my government's use of Israel and support of its genocidal policies in Palestine. I suggest that any European who really cares about the future of our planet, give the America bashing a rest and instead get on your own governments for their support of the US. Based on the actions of the Bush Administration alone, the United States should have been sanctioned and isolated by Europe. Instead, like a playful chimp, Bush was welcomed with open arms and wry smiles by European leaders, even when he gave the German chancellor a neck massage! I wonder if the Sunday Herald/UK has published any criticisms of Britian's support of Bush over the past 7 1/2 years. It's easier to make fun of American's stupidity, than to criticize those who are bankrolling the oppressors.
Are you ready? Do you have solutions? Do you have leaders?
American Capitalism is an un-sustainable economic model. Based on exploitation, instead of management of resources, American Capitalism like communism will go extinct.
Economic collapse, brings the opportunity for change, are you ready?
Do progressives have a coherent alternative economic and political model to replace American Capitalism? What is it? Can progressives offer solutions or only complaints? The American people, will be looking for solutions, do progressives have any?
Do progressives have leadership? Men and women who can mobilize the masses, organize a movement, attract new followers, get elected, and bring about change. Strong leaders, who won't be tempted by corporations, who will fight power?
This is the moment, this is the time, better get ready, have solutions, and find leaders.
Do The World A Favor And Retire!
Green Retirement Planning
http://www.iplanretirement.com
*Popping corn and watching the American Left go into meltdown*
Microwave popcorn, presumably...
Actually My Girlfriend just bought one for us that uses hot air
(Standing by for your comments...*LOL*)
Ha ha ha ha. Enjoy the "US" left in a meltdown? Ha ha ha ha ha. Surely, you jest. Watch Palin self-destruct as the country finds out more about how much more she and McCain are like Bush. Ha ha ha ha. Very funny. Meltdown. He he he. Obama raised 66-million in one month. Ha ha ha. By the way Obama is not on the left. He's left of the center which itself is over to the far right. I'm not an Obama supporter, but it is obvious that the Republican Party is heading toward complete irrelevancy as fast as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, banks, etc., are going into bankruptcy. And after that, as neo-liberalism's dominioes continue to fall one after another, so will the Democratic Party and the corrupt, rigged two party system. Popping corn and watching the American Left go into meltdown? No. Popping corn and watching your IRA, 401K, mutual funds, private pensions, public pension, and social security, bite the dust. Enjoy the meltdown.
Obama lost this Election when he chose Biden over Hillary
McCain is a moderate and is more bipartisan than Obama...which is why people are flocking to him...I think He wins by 10 to 15 percentage points
Only with the help of - by now habitual - fraud at the US elections.
Only documented fraud I see is coming from the fun folks over at ACORN
I get the feeling that Hillary was thinking of choosing Biden as well for VP. Both her and Bill seemed happier with the VP than the fact that it was Obama (and not Hillary) who was running for President.
Obama is going to give Hillary Clinton a Secretary of something - unless he is afraid of her, then she will be Ambassador to Canada or Mexico.
Wanna bet Obama romps over McCain? After the press discovers a wire under his jacket in the debates? After he shows he doesn't know what countries border Iraq? John McCain, in the year 2008 who doesn't know how to send an email! Or what a MP3 player is. And guess what? You know those polls that show McCain ahead by a few. These polls don't include cell phones. You know, cell phones, those phones that young people have as their only telephone. Cell phone owners are not included in the polls. And guess who most new registered voters are? Young people with their cell phones. You think cell phone/tech savvy young people are going to vote for a computer illiterate? Sure they will. Obama by 10 - 15, even though I support Ralph Nader. And so the evil of two lessers, Obama, will win, once again, and the corrupt cycle will repeat itself until the collapse.
Yeah...I'll take that bet...whatcha got?
...popping corn and diggin' jozef...
I don't dispute your thought that McCain might win... but to call him a moderate displays a skewed perception of where left and right lie. Obama is the closest to moderate. He's on the left side of right, as opposed to the 'perception' that he is on the 'left'.
The only candidates in this race that actually support real 'left' values are independents and 3rd party candidates, like Mr. Nader, and Cynthia McKinney.
In a-cynical reality, Obama and McCain exist on different points of the right wing. Obama to the far left of right, and McCain in the center of right. But they are both on the right.
Obama voted 97% with his party (when he didn't vote "present"
McCain voted 56% with his party (check it out...its true)
I think where he went wrong was he didn't even PRETEND to consider Hillary...and she is a vindictive bitch...he's toast
McCain supported Bush 90% of the time.
McCain supported the surge when Bush did not...Who was right?
This in my opinion, was not a particularly well written piece, despite having a title, which alluded to the thoughts of people everywhere in the World, outside of America. The Presidential race, is seen by many in Europe as a carnival, an event which has transcended politics, and entered the land of the unbelievable. If you read newspapers from all over the World, which many do in the UK, then the opinions on McCain and Palin are on the whole very negative. I disagree with the author regarding Obama and Biden, because you can trace education and experience. The way that both men conduct themselves. If McCain and Palin were running for a parliamentary seat in the UK, then they would belong to a fringe no hope party, such as the BNP or UKIP. There is a fundamental lack of experience of politics, particularly of the wider World (I don't care if Sarah Palin can see Russia from her back yard). I am not going to go into a patronising rant about what the US should be doing around the World, because recently, the UK has stood shoulder to shoulder with you on this great misadventure. Perhaps if the UK had stood up to you, then the last seven years may have been different.
realdim: "The US is not even remotely a grownup country; it's just big and stupid."
Nonsense, the US is not a country, it is a rotten failed empire, that will be one day be remembered the same way Nazi Germany is remembered. And Americans who did nothing but wring their hands, calling for a vote for one or the other war monger (Obama/McCain) will be remembered the same way as "good Germans" are remembered, and who will be asked forever, why did you not stop your country from nearly destroying the planet?
(If they succeed in destroying the planet through a combination of militarism, and ecological arrogance, not too many people will be around to be asking very many questions).
They (the "good Americans") will answer the same way as the "good Germans" answered --- we did not know. To which the world will rightly respond: BS!
http://almusawwir.org/resistance/
KDelphi September 15th, 2008 2:19 am wrote:
"But as long as you live in a country that is joining in the uS military misadventure, the advice seems ill-placed."
Why? Do you really think that non-USans whose governments haven't always lived up to the standards some (most?) USans insist their government reflects in every way have nothing to contribute to the conversation? Essentially you are claiming that we have no common values at all, if we don't acknowledge that they sprung fully formed from your sacred constitution. USans always paint us as feeling insulted. Please: we can handle your schoolyard insults. What we are is terrified of your adolescent posturing, your elevation of ignorance to a virtue, your bullying, your lack of compassion even for your own compatriots, your pitbull determination to prop up your ridiculous national myth at any expense. The US is not even remotely a grownup country; it's just big and stupid.
bligh4 September 14th, 2008 8:19 pm wrote:
"remove the log from your own eye".
That's right: only USans are allowed to criticise governments other than their own, because (as everyone ought to know) the USA is clearly the best nation ever - always was, always will be.
Pardon me while I barf.
And I'll see your Matthew 7:3 and raise you Deuteronomy 24:16.
So there.
bligh4
realdim- Actually, if you did barf- it would be the most intelligent thing to come out of your mouth today.
So, when I post a mild criticism of another country and am told-as I repeatedly am on this forum- that I cannot criticize anyone else so long as their are problems in the U.S.- I will refer them to you.
Have a great day
=)
You can ctiticizae any country you like. But as long as you live in a country that is joining in the uS military misadventure, the advice seems ill-placed.
I honestly think that the uS is one of the WORST countries to be living in now. I just cant afford to leave. Gorodn Brown and Tony Blair are well-spoken. I guess that's good enough.
Yeah, I would rather live in North Korea. Or Zimbabwe...
Flee to Canada...
All this talk about smug Europeans - what about smug Canadians or don't we count!
Ok, the hierarchy - CNN is better than Fox, the BBC is better than CNN, and the CBC is better than the BBC - but not by much.
When America catches a cold, the rest of the world stocks up on cough sirop - the kind that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Canada isn't suffering much from the Mortgage crisis, but you do know how hard it is to try to reduce the value of the Canadian dollar just so that Americans will keep buying from us!
It is the same issues all over polution, the economy, jobs moving overseas and trade - and that wild life reserve on the Alaskan border that Buck and McRaisin want to drill in is half in Canada. And that the largest source of American oil is not the Middle East but the Alberta tar sands (in Canada).
Harper wrong to fast-track tar sands development
http://www.ndp.ca/page/6768
Layton announces plan to stop manufacturing sector sell-out
http://www.ndp.ca/page/6784
What does McRaisin, Obama and the European Union have in common - Jack Layton's Environmental plan - says Jack:
Layton spells out better environmental plan
http://www.ndp.ca/page/6798
When you take away everything a person has worth living for, they will find something worth dying for. The system has been worked by the elite to take the fight out of the clones, since they proved their worth in the 60s
First, Americans probably have a substantial minority of mentally ill people, and another substantial minority of ignorant goons. They can't think, reasonably.
Second, the election system is fraudulent. The electronic voting machines are corrupt, and cannot be audited.
Third, the owners of the USA are moving out to China, and India most of the wealth and leaving the bills to the U.S. Treasury. The USA is bankrupt.
Have a nice day.
Yes, the world watches on incredulously what is happening in the USA. Is that silly little redneck woman the next vice president of the most powerful nation in the world? Is that ignoramus to lead the world when the decrepit old man keels over? Are you playing a bad joke on us all?
Mr. Bell, though I agree with your disappointment with the US political candidates, you do miss the point. You wrote...
...you have ceased to take yourselves seriously and, more important, don't much care who knows it. Arguments over the relationship between the wider world and your choices have become irrelevant. You have detached yourself, finally, from the global community. This is isolationism as never before conceived. "American" in my life has been lingua franca, for better or ill. Now you talk to yourself.
Americans have not stopped caring about ANY important issue, but instead we are no longer included in the political process. A tightly censored media (you think BBC is bad? Try checking out American mainstream networks!) guarantees that Americans are kept in the dark about world affairs while simultaneously are dished out an avalanche of sophisticated misinformation. We turn on our T.V.'s to find out what is happening in the world and we get O.J. or Britney. On the political stage it is even worse. Only the corporate parties (Dems & Reps.) and candidates who have proven their allegiance to the corporate mantra, are offered up to us while all other candidates are ignored at the very least and all together absent from the ballot in more extreme cases.
Naturally this can lead to a sense of powerlessness or even apathy. Our democracy was highjacked decades ago, yet we still exercise our right to vote as we cling on to the misguided belief that maybe, just maybe, the next president we pick will stand up to the destructive and elitist corporate agenda.
Britain, with it's parliamentary system, multiple parties and more government oversight, hasn't quite succumbed to the predatory corporate beast, but you're not that far behind either. All citizens must remain vigilant against abuse of their government, but to do that effectively, the citizenry needs to be informed. Unfortunately that information is not forthcoming in the ole U.S. of A.
Pretty much right on the spot I do have to point out one error to quote,
"we could not hold a blood-red candle to Spain, France, Germany, Holland or even little Belgium"
Oh yes you can, you can hold a bloody big candle, and you (Britain) have been doing it for much longer too. From the recent SAS Car Bombers in Basra to Culloden, British history is a very long bloody tale indeed.
Other than that yeah, viewed from here, things down south are getting a little manic, the window dressing is coming off and what is to be seen ain't pretty. Beginning to understand how the Poles felt in the thirties.
Don't forget the American Revolution
TOAST: Love the satire on the Palin family barbecue: Beverly Hill Billies meet crossed with ATilla the Hun.
TULLYCCRO probably gets his news from the likes of Chris Matthews, Bill O Reilly and the "Generals" for stage-hire. Like so many in America, he doesn't KNOW what's been going on with our treasury, CIA, MIC, prison system, elections, EPA, FCC, etc.
WC DEVINS: Good post, too.
What strikes me is if the Vietnamese can forgive, any nation can... and as the article by Desmond Tutu posted yesterday reminds, for our world to move past this redundant reflex towards war and destruction in favor of the preservation of life and compromised eco-systems, a LOT of Truth and Reconciliation will be required. The trespasser must forgive himself, too; as that is also part of the process of catharsis. NO argument for more weapons or who's the biggest, baddest bully makes sense any longer; and tragically, America is selling weapons the way the crack dealer seduces the 15 year old skinny kid in the ghetto making him think "with this stuff" he'll earn his rites of manhood, or own a power he didn't have before. And the result is more dead civilians.
TULLYCCRO: Do you know the statistics of what percentage of civilians have died in recent wars? It far exceeds so-called enemy combatants, unless the 4 year old kid at the unfortunate wedding party in the path of our "guided smart bombs and missiles" can be construed as such.
"Do you know the statistics of what percentage of civilians have died in recent wars?"
A good link here: http://www.cursor.org/stories/civpertons.htm
Obama/biden scares the sh_t out of us.
McCain/palin scares the living sh_t out of us.
Vote independent if you can - Mass. - Vt. - N.Y. - ect. Vote your conscience if you must.
eVERY AMERICAN SHOULD READ THE COMMON DREAMS , PERHAPS THEY WILL WAKE UP TO THE CORRUPT DICTATORSHIP THAT HAS CONTROLLED OUR GOVERNMENT FOR NEARLY EIGHT YEARS AND IS GETTING WORSE.
pLEASE VOTE FOR THE RIGHT PARTY. Obama/Biden. I am a retired Marine CWO white and ready as an forever DEMOCRAT.
Obama/Biden? "VOTE FOR THE RIGHT PARTY"? You got that correct. The DEMOCRATIC party is the RIGHT party, one of two parties of the Right. Run Ralph. Run!
Frank 1569,
That is NOT what to do when your car spins out in snow. You should never think that things can't get worse. Personally speaking, I liked yesterday's article better than this one with its "lingua francas."
Well, maybe the Bell bird didn't know he was writing for Americans-- I guess that would excuse him.
Yesterday's article was about how, whereas the world has blamed Bush, excusing America, it will blame America itself if...
With repercussions beyond almost anyone's belief.
Dear World,
Americans are idiots betting on further shipments from the big rock candy mountain to make everything ok. Not all of us to be sure but enough of us that we suffer from a terminal inability to organize practically anything on a national level. We also have the unfortunate habit of voting for the person whose promises make the least sense.
All you need to know about america is visible in our homeless population among the wealthy, our lack of a sane health care system and our inability to organize a sane banking system.
If you have any dollar denominated assets; I advise you sell. If you doubt me look at John McCain and Sara Palin, a stroke victim and a jesus freak on speed. They would be joke candidates in an African nation and they are front runners in the US.
Good luck with running the planet with the US running interference.
Well said Pangolin.
Now I think all of us, lefties, progressives, and believers in justice and the American way should just pack up our tents and leave. WE can start our own country. And before long, the McCain’s and Palin’s will be killing each other for the scraps.
bligh4
I love being lectured by smug Europeans. You know, the ones that invented "imperialism", launched the two most devestating wars in history, killed 11 million of their undesirable minorities in living memory, killed millions of Native Americans, and organized the Atlantic slave trade.
"remove the log from your own eye".
And Europeans love it when Yankees answer any criticism with a (look what you did hundreds of years ago). This from the greatest nation in the world, HoHoHo.
How about "Look what you did in our lifetimes, and look at what you are doing RIGHT NOW."
WWII--20 million plus dead. Thanks, Europe.
World Communism, a European ideology, 50 million plus dead (Genocide of the Kulaks in Ukraine, Great Leap Forward in China, Pol Pot, North Korea, Ethiopian Famine under Haile Mengistu, etc etc) Thanks, Europe
French Algeria, 1960. Thanks, Europe
Bosnia, mid 1990's. Thanks, Europe
Kosovo. Thanks, Europe
Genocide in Chechynia, right now. Thanks, Europe.
Did I leave any genocides out? Probably, there are too many of them to remember.
bligh4
Bligh- Grandmother's maiden name.
Thanks for asking
Yes, the old whores who tell the younger ones not to do what they have done. Why on earth would you want to listen to them? Bligh... A reference to the RN Captain from Mutiny of the Bounty fame?
This post is amusingly self-contradictory in several ways. First, you set up a conflict in which "Americans" should not tolerate any "lectures" from smug Europeans.
A moment later, someone is being blamed for killing "millions of Native Americans." But this isn't the "Americans" (the ones who shouldn't tolerate lectures from Europeans). No, according to you, it's still the "smug Europeans" who were responsible for the killing of the Native Americans. How very odd. I thought that it was "Murricans" who exterminated those Indians.
Then you're blaming the same "Europeans" for the Atlantic slave trade. This is partly true. Yet in one of your recent posts, you defended the Confederacy, referring to the Civil War as "The War of "Yankee Aggression." One would never have guessed that all along, you were so morally outraged by the Atlantic slave trade.
bligh4
Rich M, the "defense of the Confederacy" was satire- that apparently went right over your head. It concerned everyone asserting the "right" of part of Georgia to succeed from the rest of the country- and me comparing it to the arguement given for the Confederacy's right to succeed from the Union.
As far as the Europeans not being responsible for the Atlantic slave trade- well then it must have been the Africans, because no one else was involved when it was set up in the 15th century.
I would also like to know how the Europeans have there hands clean on the killing of Native Americans either, since the U.S. did not exist before 1775- and then on only 20% of the landmass of the Americas.
Or are you asserting that NO Native Americans deaths occurred before 1775- Then "Murricans" - not only wiped out those in the future continental U.S., but also rampaged down thru Central and South America destroying the Aztec and Inca empires as they went. What a crock.
Looks like Europeans have not cornered the market on smugness.
If you're going to talk about the Civil War, at least learn the difference between "succeed" and "secede." Only a semi-literate would say Georgia wanted to "succeed" from the union. But then, there are many such in CD, sadly.
I get your drift on slavery, but can you not look a little deeper? There were bankers then and bankers now who did not care which side of the Atlantic their returns on usury came from.
There were bankers then and now. Allende's big mistake was to nationalize the copper mines. The bankers, not the upstart democratic politicians, nor the electorate will decide the degree of slavery. Just ask the miners! Ask Henry Kissinger.
There were bankers then and now. Who is responsible for the cocaine or heroin trade, the consumer or the supplier? Who is to blame, user or the dealer, the trader or the grower, or the CIA-DEA which use all of these to garner power and influence and spend your billions, and deviate what they need to feed their friends from Colombia to Afghanistan. The "War on Drugs", "the War on Terror". same planes owned by the same companies carry drugs today, and renditions tomorrow.... same contractors, same companies, same bankers!
You see nations and sovereignty; they see profit on debts managed by appointed governments like yours in America. You can have Twiddledy Dee or Twiddledy Dum.
The good guys and the bad guys are in the movies. You may be surprised to learn one day that the cops and the robbers are all on the same side! They are looking after their property; the debt you owe them and your taxes; from birth to death and beyond you are their slave.
Oh, your comment just wonderful! Thanks, it made my day!
Thank you translucent.
HP, This country is irrevocably doomed. The absolute best we can hope for is later rather than sooner.
"The world cries injustice, historic, enduring, and a continuing justification for resistance, none of it pretty. You talk peace, but you say Israel - now where did this phrase come from? - right or wrong. Do the moral calculus. Stinking anti-Semites who would wipe Israel from the map do not justify every action Israel takes. "
That depends. As a Jew to me I certainly feel that they do so. As far as claiming the "world" cries injustice at the plight of the Palestinians, please spare us. The overwhelming majority of people in the world clearly and indisputably support the Israeli position, and have long ago recognized Israel. It is only a small minority of anti-Semites who blame everything on the Jews. But they are just a fringe element, far too small to matter.
Earth to mikep, Earth to mikep: What kind of virtual reality are you living in right now?
Would someone please, show Palin and her ilk in USA some of the consequences of their policies of supporting the zionist entity:
These presentations are just the tip of the iceberg, please watch and share them with the world:
I want to tell the world
http://tinyurl.com/4688dq
I want to tell the world- with music
http://tinyurl.com/5yljul
Life under occupation
http://tinyurl.com/5236c5
Destruction and ethnic cleansing
http://tinyurl.com/4mc9uk
Injuries and death
http://tinyurl.com/45vmfk
Hope never fades away
http://tinyurl.com/3pnx95
"And you talk, my friends, in the sort of gibberish that once you spurned. It's not about Ms Palin, as such. It is about the process that creates a candidate-grin manipulated to serve darkness, ignorance, fear, a war economy, and the flaunting of stupidity."
Very true.
A couple of notions ran through my head as I read this article: 1. It is the process that is broken for us - the system. No matter who wins, Obama, McCain, Nader, or Howdy Doody, the system is broken for the people and only the people can take it back. 2. Disaffected Clinton supporters supporting McCain/Palin. What? I mean, WHAT? Where is the logic here? Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!
One more thing I can't get my mind around: Independent voters unsure whether they will vote for Obama or McCain.
"Too close to call. America, that is almost beyond words." No, it IS beyond words.
BRAVO!
Does the rest of the world understand that our Presidency is held hostage by a ridiculous electoral college?? Do they realize that our corporations hold us all hostage and wreck our world through bribery of major party politicians?? Do they realize that most of our poor people simply don't vote? (I for one do not blame them one bit for this and hate the snobbery of "everyone should vote" rhetoric). Does the rest of the world understand that so-called "conservatives" always put us into greater debt and spend MORE than so-called "liberals"? Do they realize that Obama is a particularly terrible candidate who was chosen due to sexism, a false label as an "anti-war" candidate, and a blank slate of no substantive achievements? It's all so sad.
I agree with Karl Rove: the electoral college, as of right now, is Obama 273 and McCain 265. But who knows what will happen in the next 6 and a half weeks? Diebold machines? etc.
Unless Obama quits being nervous and isn't afraid to be a true progreesive/liberal populist and put peace over war first, he's as "good" as Mccain. Yeah, Obama won't crash the country as fast as Mccain but still there's not much to vote for between the two. In fact, this same silly begging from Europe came up in 2004 despite the fact that Kerry wasn't much different from Bush. Europe has no business begging America to vote Democrat simply because that party looks less evil at face value. Besides, rightwing takeover is creeping up in Europe and those folks would be better off minding their own business. The Democrats should have convinced us long term that they could identify with and fight for us. They didn't.
Sorry, Mark Curtis's article on Rwanda is located here (Britain and America were involved in the genocide of one million Africans in 1994):
"Bloodshed and whitewash: Britain and the Rwanda genocide":
http://www.medialens.org/articles/the_articles/rwanda/mc_rwanda.html
Also read this, to see that Britain and America have much in common:
http://markcurtis.wordpress.com/category/articles/uk-foreign-policy/
"My view is that the reality of Britain's foreign policy is very different than usually presented by academics. Indeed, I think British academics are generally responsible for keeping students and the public in ignorance about this country's real role in the world.
"Explicit or implicit in much academic analysis is that Britain aims to promote the grand principles of democracy, peace, human rights and overseas development, the goals espoused by policy-makers. Criticism of policy is normal, but is usually within very narrow parameters, focuses on marginal issues and ignores whole policies. There has been a categoric failure to document rigorously the formerly secret planning records in the National Archives.
"My own research shows that Britain is a systematic violator of international law and the UN, a key ally of many repressive regimes and a consistent condoner of human rights abuses. The key goals are to maintain British elites' political standing in the world - 'great power' status - and to ensure that the global economy benefits Western business, both in alliance with the US. From these goals flow many policies consigning much of the world's population to the status of 'unpeople' - victims of policies."
I find that racist. You are implying that the ones who DID the killing, the Rwandans, somehow didn't know what they were doing. As if they were children.
It was Rwandans who took their machetes and killed their neighbours. Not holding them responsible because they are black is IMO racist.
No, the implication is that the UK engages in economic Imperialism.
In every conflict, the weapons come from somewhere.
In every conflict there are outside interests (as well as inside interests) who don't want the two (or more) sides to kiss and make up.
Rwanda was different that the usual Disaster Capitalism amplification, though, since it was the lack of vested interest which led the Brits, the American and, for the most part, the Canadians from trying to stop it.
Romeo Dallair tried to stop the Rwandan genocide, now he is trying to free Omar Khadr.
Want to know what it is like to plead with governments to act to stop a genocide that you know is about to happen and they don't do anything.
And then the killing starts, you plead and plead and still no action.
Prime Ministers and Presidents did not lose sleep over Rwanda - there was no money to be made in Rwanda at the time.
By that very logic, it wasn't Germans who were to blame for the holocaust but the Allies who knew and didn't stop it. See how ridiculous that is?
No, sorry, the PRIMARY culprit is the one who actually kills. I.e. the Rwandans themselves. A hell of a lot more blame is levelled at everyone else but them, and that's shifting the blame, this sounds like the "poor Rwandans didn't quite know what it means to kill someone".
And that, I am sorry, is patronizing and in that case racist. One would never use this argument do defend genocide committed by whites, no matter who supplied the arms.
One can expect Africans to know right from wrong without western nannies telling them and the murderers are the ones who primarily are to be held accountable.
An excellent piece by Mr. Bell. Thanks so much for the perspective.
I am almost embarassed to be an american.