One of the most fascinating things about the course of human affairs, I think, is the enormous difference in potential directions life can take depending on discrete moments (which is why I do believe in the Great Man theory of history, btw). If that bomb had gone off in London, killing dozens or hundreds, British life might have moved in a remarkably different direction (though the Brits are pretty good or bad, if you know what I mean at shrugging off these sorts of things). The first day of the new Prime Minister's tenure is an pregnant moment to slaughter people, after all.
Or look at it this way: Imagine if the 9/11 plot had been foiled through some random border guard's good fortune or diligence? How different would the last six years look? The Millennium bombing was prevented by a stroke of good luck (though the Clinton crowd crows about it). If that attack had succeeded, one can imagine that 9/11 might have been prevented, thanks to the heightened scrutiny that would have ensued. And, for all we know, Gore might have been elected president. When you start thinking about it, the wheels of history can get jammed by the smallest things, a parking ticket, a missed bus, a forgotten wallet.
Anyway, the irony is that from a policy standpoint, it seems to me that security officials have to view things like the failed London bombing as basically no different than a successful bombing. But because the bombing failed, the policy options to security officials are far narrower precisely because the bombing failed and therefore didn't rouse the sort of political reaction it might otherwise have.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/29/2007 14:07 ||
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As Mark Twain might say, reports of the Immigration Bill's death have been highly exaggerated.
The bill might have been killed for the second time, but today's Wall Street Journal reports that at least three key parts of it may still have life (one of which, the Dream Act, I've previously written about). Yes, it's like Freddy Kruger. The bill never completely dies. These, too, must be killed:
DREAM ACT: Would open up educational opportunities for the children of illegal immigrants and create a path to citizenship if they enlist in the military.
AgJOBS Bill: A compromise between the United Farm Workers and producers, it focuses on illegal aliens who have a proven record of agricultural employment in the US and pledge to work requisite years to gain permanent residency.
Tech-worker Visas: A variety of bills have been filed to triple the annual number of visas for high-skilled workers and make it easier for companies to petition for green cards, allowing foreign-born workers to become permanent residents.
#2
I think the time is coming very soon for the second Constutional Convention. Apparently these politicians just don't get that the people they're supposed to respresent don't like it and won't have it.
#3
Congressional leaders are hoping to get approval no.s in the single digits so's they can count em without taking off their shoes. Morons
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2007 18:33 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Part zero. Border Security: Take all means necessary to secure our borders; in particular to stop the invasion from Mexico.
Funny, while this is a main concern of constituents, it is totally ignored by the "masters of the universe".
#5
I have no basic problem with reconsidering individual pieces of the bill, and doing so with proper time for discussion and amendment. The fact is, our immigration problem is actually many problems; address the pieces we can.
For instance, more than a few immigrants have already served admirably in our military, mostly legally, but no doubt some fraudulently; that service earns bonus points from me. Discuss farm labor issue independently and I suspect an acceptable compromise can be reached - not a blanket amnesty. On educational opportunities - maybe a merit-based system that requires something in return (service, useful major, etc.) Improvements to the legal immigration system have long been needed - for instance we just can't find enough techically competent young engineers and other scientists - our kids just are not doing the work it takes to excell in those challenging fields. If we won't grow our own, and we won't import what we need, then we will for sure export the work to India or such (even more than we already do.) Again, some compromise may be needed to protect working Americans, but it should not be a blanket condemnation of all immigration legislation. What we have NOW is already broken and needs to be fixed; the problem was that the proposed comprehensive reform bill was only going to make it worse.
#7
You don't understand, certain senators have already been bought and paid for. Their wives have new furs and jewels, cars, yachts and vacations. This is no time to waver. Their new masters, big chicken and big celery are waiting for eager workers as promised.
I see a line of 45 senators bowing to big chicken and saying 'we will serve you now, master' 'first we must take a few trucks to town and pretend we have construction jobs waiting, then you will have all the help you need.'
#8
It is time to start taking pieces of certain senators. Good lord the fuckers are proving to be completely corrupt and ignoring THEIR bosses. Us. Remember dingbats, we have killed leaders before for less than this. We just really still believe in the process of democracy too much to let loose on you morons yet. You are dangerously close to us completely losing it.
H/T The Corner and Powerline Al Gore visit postponed
Former US vice president Al Gore will not be able to make it to Taiwan this September to address the issue of global warming, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin said yesterday.
Tien, who invited Gore to visit Taiwan to promote awareness on global warming, told reporters yesterday that she received an e-mail from the Harry Walker Agency, which has the exclusive right to arrange Gore's speeches, saying that Gore had canceled all his scheduled events in the next six months.
The visit to Taiwan had been postponed to next year, she added. Tien said the reason for the cancelation was that Gore was considering a presidential bid. And here comes Kerry
#2
Going green (intelligently) can be a great cost saver. I s'pose publicly acceding to the less onerous demands of the Green lobby can be a cost of annoyance saver, which can be worth doing, too... although those kinds of pragmatic decisions drive me mad.
#3
He needs to run on the Green ticket--someone has to split the moonbat Left vote save the Earth from Hillary! global warmening! Run, Al, run!
Posted by: Mike ||
06/29/2007 12:55 Comments ||
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#4
Took the words out of my mouth, Mike. Now if we can induce Nader and Bloomie to run as third-party candidates the moonbat vote will be so fragmented that the Republicans just might retain the presidency. (Fred and Rudy! Rudy and Fred!)
Posted by: Jonathan ||
06/29/2007 13:27 Comments ||
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#5
Fred Thompson/Michael Steele '08
Posted by: Mike ||
06/29/2007 15:49 Comments ||
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#9
Oh please oh please run. Especially on the Green ticket. The democratic party will have a hard time recovering from the multiple fractures after that bout.
I give President Bush full credit for a bold and sweeping attempt to solve a genuine national problem. I also believe the Presidents overall approach was the correct one. And its important to emphasize that the President showed a genuine willingness to compromise. The problem was not President Bush, but the obstructionism of his critics. And so, unfortunately, we lost the chance for social security reform early in the Presidents second term.
The immigration battle was different. There President Bush was also trying to solve a genuine national problem. Yet I believe his fundamental approach was wrong-headed, and the compromise flawed, superficial, and deeply misleading. And so, unfortunately, we lost the chance for immigration reform late in the Presidents second term.
Having focused overwhelming attention on the Iraq war, the country lost site of the deeper threat posed by a nuclear Iran: the collapse of the worlds non-proliferation regime, a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, a greatly heightened chance of nuclear terror, and nuclear blackmail in the Persian Gulf. And so, unfortunately, we lost the chance to stop a nuclear Iran by the end of President Bushs final term.
Believing that the Middle East was the fundamental danger, and that Chinas rise would draw its most significant strategic consequences only decades down the road, the country scarcely noticed the rise of an absolutist Russia, willing to use oil as a weapon, and able to coordinate an emerging de facto alliance between itself, several states of its former empire, China, and a newly nuclear Iran. And so, unfortunately, we found ourselves divided and paralyzed by internal squabbles at very the moment when our position in the world was being eroded by a growing alliance of the worlds absolutist powers.
All eras are not alike. I remember scanning the New York Times during the Clinton era (yes, the Times was my bible back then), and many a time being unable to find a single story that might count as actual news. The relative pace of events was slow. History seemed, at minimum, to be taking a break.
Its different nowvery differentand getting "differenter" all the time. The next president of the United States is going to have to face an immense heap of unsolved problems. We keep putting them off because theyre too painful to easily solve, and because were too divided to figure out what we want anyway. Yet sooner or later the piper is going to be paid.
The oldest baby boomers begin collecting their social security checks right around 2008. Every new year will bring our entitlement crisis nearer. Iran is close to the point of no return right now, and will likely be a de facto nuclear power by the end of the new presidents first year in office, if not sooner. Will this presidential race be the "immigration campaign?" Probably not. But the next term just might be "the immigration presidency."
Will an alliance of absolutist powers really emerge? Slowly but surely it may. The best way to stop it would be to overcome our current weakness and solidify our international position. In the face of Americas internal divisions, will the next president be able to do that? Maybe so, but it certainly wont be easy. And we havent even gotten to "surprises" like, say, and end to Musharraf and domestic instability in a nuclear Pakistan.
Hillary and Bill, Im glad two heads are better than one, because youre going to need both. Good luck on that "healing divisions" part, though. Barack, weve never needed experience and a running start more than we do now. I hope youre a quick study. Rudy, I sure wish youd ease my mind by saying more of what I want to hear about your Supreme Court appointments and your immigration stance. Still, you strike me as about as ready for the challenges we face as any of the candidates could possibly be. Fred, youre a bit experience short yourself. Even so, I like your style and your substance. You also strike me as the fellow who just might be able to cobble this country back together again. Mitt, youre especially good at turning messes around. Well, Ive got a special present for you: an Olympic-sized pool of troubles well all be plowing through round about 2009.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/29/2007 10:21 ||
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#1
All eras are not alike. I remember scanning the New York Times during the Clinton era (yes, the Times was my bible back then), and many a time being unable to find a single story that might count as actual news. The relative pace of events was slow. History seemed, at minimum, to be taking a break.
That's cause your 'bible' chose like Billy Boy to ignore AQ after the first bombing under the World Trade towers. Then there was the little truck bomb at the Khorbar Towers. Of course the embassy bombings in Africa. And of course you ignored it too. Cause, you know, nothing much was going on. If the 'bible' didn't think it was important like the integration of Masters golf tourney for women, it wasn't important.
History follows the same flows as nature does in Darwinism. When one predator leaves the stage [the Soviets] another one will grow and fill the void [the Islamic Fascist]. Count on it or perish. You, like your bible, chose to ignore it. If and when the radical islamics are ground down, you can count that someone else will be awaiting another suspension of your collective brains to make its presence felt.
The work never ends till you give up and surrender. Personally I'd rather work to keep the next Dark Age at bay as long as I can.
The federal interior minister, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, during his visit to Beijing, got an earful from the Chinese minister of public security, Zhou Yongkang Zhou, who asked Pakistan for the umpteenth time to protect Chinese nationals working in Pakistan. The reference was to the assault and kidnapping of Chinese citizens in Islamabad by the Lal Masjid vigilantes. The Chinese minister called the Lal Masjid mob terrorists who targeted the Chinese, and asked Pakistan to punish the criminals. Mr Sherpao, who must have regretted being in Beijing, lamely rejoined that Pakistan would take more rigorous action to safeguard the security of Chinese people and organisations in Pakistan.
Of course, our interior minister knew that he would not be able to do much in this regard. The government has not been able to punish the Waziristan warlord Abdullah Mehsud for abducting the Chinese engineers in FATA. In fact given todays political environment, Abdullah Mehsud may be more popular in certain areas of Pakistan than President Musharraf. The Chinese engineers killed in Balochistan too were taken by the Pakistanis who normally boast about China as an all-weather friend as forgivable collateral damage in Pakistans ideological excesses. While President Musharraf has confessed that Pakistans FATA seminaries have been sheltering Uighur terrorists from Chinas Western province, Sinkiang, opposition politicians in Pakistan heatedly deny that there are any foreigners in the tribal areas.
Out of all the relationships Pakistan has with other states, the one with China is the most mundane because it is not based on any intellectual or cultural affinity. It has been a materialistic connection propelled by Pakistans hunger for nuclear weapons and delivery systems. The trouble started with China when the Chinese were building the Karakoram Highway in the 1970s. Mr Z A Bhutto, the then Pakistani prime minister who sported a Mao cap on his foreign tours, had a hard time cooling down the ideological passions aroused against the Chinese among regional officials of the state of Pakistan. But during the Afghan jihad under General Zia ul Haq, China first began to feel the heat from our religious parties engaged in plans of reconquering Muslim areas under Communism.
Trouble arose for President Musharraf too when Pakistans seminaries began to shelter rebels from the Muslim community of Uighurs from China. According to reports published in the international press, he eliminated 19 Uighurs at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2001, at the behest of Beijing. The Uighur American Organisation in its 2002 letter to the then-Pakistani ambassador to the United States, protested Pakistans deportation of the Uighurs. In May 2002, meanwhile, the Chinese authorities announced that Pakistan had detained Ismail Kader, a major Uighur separatist leader, at a secret meeting in Kashmir. In December 2003, Pakistani authorities stated that Hasan Mahsum, leader of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, was shot dead on October 2 during a military operation to flush out Al Qaeda elements in South Waziristan.
President Musharraf, during his visits to China in 2001 and 2003, pledged to the Chinese leaders that Pakistan would never allow anyone, including the terrorist forces of East Turkestan, to use Pakistani territory to carry out anti-China activities. The Lal Masjid affair has now put the president on the spot. The rangers have been called out in Islamabad, but when the mullahs gave warning that they would soon declare jihad against the state of Pakistan, the routine disclaimer has once again been issued: that the government has no intention of attacking the armed acolytes of the seminary. One of the clerics has appeared in the national press in a photograph showing him surrounded by armed guards. The Chinese have been dumped again.
Pakistan has always got into bed with the wrong states. As a warrior state intellectually wedded through the clerics to jihad and through some vaunted retired military minds to war with India and the United States, Pakistan has shown no inclination to look at China as a model for effective statecraft. Pakistan interprets its strategic geopolitical location as a disruptive opportunity blocking other nations access to neighbouring regions. Despite President Musharrafs assertions, Pakistan still regards trade as an obstacle to war instead of the other way round. But Chinas pragmatism goes against the grain of Pakistani nationalism; and there is no desire in Pakistan to embark on any cultural connection with a country admired only because it has supported Pakistans not so noble military adventures in the region.
It is easy to predict what Islamabad will do. It will shove China in the box called collateral damage and protect the outlaws of Lal Masjid because there are too many people inside the establishment who want the clerics to win the battle of pieties. The government has so far done more to complete the Lal Masjid crusade against video shops than it has protected the inhabitants of Islamabad against violence and kidnapping. *
Posted by: John Frum ||
06/29/2007 00:00 ||
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The furore in Pakistan about Salman Rushdies knighthood tells us a great deal about that peculiar country and something about ours.
Of the many protests that the knighthood seems to have provoked in Pakistan (among them effigy burnings, street protests, political resolutions and outraged diplomatic memorandums) there were two that were of particular interest: one, the announcement by Zia-ul-Haqs son, now a federal minister, that the British governments decision to confer the knighthood was a provocation grave enough to justify any suicide bombings that might follow and two, the decision of a shopkeepers association to offer lakhs of rupees to any Muslim who decapitated Rushdie.
The minister back-pedalled when the British government let the Pakistani state, its ally in the war against terror, know that it wasnt amused, but that he made the statement in the first place is significant. It would be a mistake to see this only as a sons attempt to claim his fathers Islamist mantle, though that might be part of the explanation. The statements significance lies in the insight it offers into the political compulsions of a majoritarian state.
The Pakistani state explicitly derives its legitimacy from its Muslim people. Created in the name of Muslim self-determination, its nationalist self-image is a collage of two political styles: Pan-Islamist rhetoric and Kashmir-centred revanchism. This myth of origin, combined with the chronic failure of representative politics in that country, made it hard for Pakistans political culture to develop the secular populism that legitimizes electoral politics in third-world countries, which helped democracy strike roots in republican India.
Posted by: John Frum ||
06/29/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
India is like a child born into poverty but on the way to becoming a success due to a wholesome value system and the ability to play well with others.
Pakistan is like India's deformed younger sibling with a sense of inferiority, a creeping persecution complex, antisocial traits and a desire to hang out with the wrong crowd.
The visible comparison between the two nations is almost like a controlled experiment in a laboratory of Islamic culture's ability to poison and warp one people who would otherwise be virtually identical to the other.
#3
majoritarian state constitutionally defined by faith fights a losing battle against ideologues who can wheel out the howitzers of revelation against the pragmatic, necessarily compromising nature of democratic politics
Or any rational politics whatsoever. I wish everybody who's committed to democratization (and/or pragmatic cooperation with local dictators) of MME, would study Pakistan.
I have realised that this generation is very different from ours. This realisation came to me while conversing with 21 year-old budding musician Wasif Qureshi, in Karachi, and college students Aman Akmal in Islamabad and Javed Ramey in Lahore.
Qureshi has his own band and has recently acquired a day job at an advertising agency. He dreams of travelling abroad to earn a masters degree. When questioned on what subject he would like to read, I expect the usual subjects including advertising, marketing, economics, music etc. His answer is surprising: Islamic studies.
Taken aback, I couldnt help but ask why he would go to a European institute to study such a subject. Why are you so shocked? Did you know Farhat Hashmi did her PhD in Islamic studies from the University of Glasgow in Scotland? he asked. I did not know that.
And that was when a realisation dawned on me. I come from another generation, one that danced in the streets of Karachi and Lahore at the demise of the Zia dictatorship and looked euphorically towards a more liberal, secular and democratic Pakistan.
Akmal and Ramey are both about to be enrolled at a high profile university in Lahore. They want to get their MBA degrees from there and then go on to join foreign banks. They like designer brands, are in on the latest Western trends and watch Hollywood and Bollywood movies with great interest. But they will suddenly swing to the far sides of conservatism whenever talk of Islam, the Quran, Bush or Osama crops up.
While talking to these young men, I figured that the whole concept of contradiction, let alone hypocrisy, seems quite alien to this generation.
Despite the fact that neither of them has ever been to the US, they all sport very convincing American accents. Each holds the view that capitalism is the only way a countrys economy can prosper. When I asked about the true spirit of Islam and its concept of the welfare state the answer I get from Qureshi is, Thats socialism! And when asked whats wrong with socialism I am told, very matter-of-factly, Its not Islamic.
A key fact about all these young men is that almost all of them have at least one close relative associated with an evangelical Islamic organisation. The most prominent among these are Farhat Hashmis Al-Huda, Baber Chaudarys Al-Rheman - Al-Rahim and the famous Tableeghi Jamaat in Raiwind.
Such organisations, even in the early 90s, were usually believed to only be associated with the conservative petty-bourgeois, or the more religious among the alienated labour class.
But according to well-known Urdu poet and learned Barelvi school follower, Azm Behzad, with the rise of the Taliban in 1995, various intelligence agencies got involved in a strategic and cultural program designed to safe-guard Zias so-called Islamisation process in the wake of liberal democracy in Pakistan.
The fall of Communism in the USSR in 1991 and the sudden arrival of the social and cultural confusion generated by capitalism-driven globalisation, brought into question the place of a practicing Muslim Pakistani in such a scenario.
Not having a strong secular tradition (like Turkey), the paranoia that emerged from a feeling of contradiction surfaced. The question now was how one was to justify enjoying the material and amoral benefits of neo-capitalism and globalisation and yet still remain a good Muslim.
According to Tariq Qadir, a former member of the Al-Rheman-Al-Rahim organisation, the sole aim of brand new organisations such as the one he became a part of (and Farhat Hashmis Al-Huda) was to take care of the anxiety pangs of people of the educated and modern classes whod been attracted towards the more puritanical sides of Islam and were feeling uncomfortable about their lifestyles clashing with their new-found beliefs.
He said these classes were searching for scholars who would tell them what they wanted to hear. That it is okay to enjoy the fruits of modernisation and still be a true Muslim.
Organisations like Al-Rheman-Al-Rahim, Al-Huda and the Tableeghi Jamaat not only got a boost (both financial and social), due to a sudden surge in their ranks, from people belonging to the moneyed classes but in the late 90s, when a string of celebrities in the shape of pop musicians, actors and cricketers started to join, it almost became a trend among affluent young men and women to frequent lectures organised by these organisations.
Tariq began his reborn life by accompanying celebrities like Najam Shiraz, Salman Ahmed, Junaid Jamshed, Adnan Ali Agha and others to Al-Rheman Al-Rahims old headquarters on Tariq Road in Karachi.
I asked Tariq, who also visited Raiwind (with Junaid Jamshed) for a Tableeghi Jamaat gathering in 2001, whether the Jamaats message, too, was about a convoluted reconciliation between modern living and Islamic thought.
Well, at least its more moneyed, and privileged members see it this way, said Tariq. It seems the Tableeghi Jamaat now feels it is important for them to get high profile celebrities. The Jamaat does not stop them from enjoying the goods of their professions, as long as they are good recruiters, says Tariq.
But there is a clear contradiction in what these celebrities do and what they preach.
Well thats what these organisations are here for, he said. Becoming a part of them means getting an Islamic label while continuing to do things that have nothing to do with saadigi (austerity) or modesty!
Ifat Nasreen, a passionate activist of the Womens Action Forum (WAF) in the 80s and now a mother of two teenage sons, summed up the situation with an air of resignation: What is happening to todays young generation regarding religion is an outcome of what happened during the Zia regime. The process of institutionalising religious hypocrisy that he started has now been strengthened by everyone from brutal jihadi organisations, to mullahs to even the organisations who are catering to the more well-to-do segments of society. But what can you expect from a society whose state and governments are all guilty of such hypocrisies? Nadeem F Paracha is a Karachi-based journalist and co-host of Aaj TVs News, Views and Confused
Posted by: John Frum ||
06/29/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Who knew the Muslims had their own Jerry Falwells and Jim Bakkers?
#4
I am sure they can find a sura or have one of their whacko religious leaders come up w/a fatwa that will excuse or rationalize any absurd thing they choose to do or believe. Seems their entire religion has been doing that for a thousand yrs.
#5
Now I'm convinced more than ever, Islam has to go. Phalk the moderate muzzies. This whole caveman belief system has to be buried and never again mentioned.
After much deliberation, we at GayPatriot are pleased to announce that Dan Rather has been selected to be the first recipient of the prestigious James Earl Carter Bitter Old Man Award (JEC BOMA). Named in honor of the nations thirty-ninth president, the JEC BOMA honors those men over 70 who, in their dotage, by the very bitterness of their manner, follow in the footsteps of the nations worst president. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
06/29/2007 13:03 ||
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#1
That's kinda unfair. How come they didn't give it to Carter?
Oh, well. Something else for him to blame the Israelis for...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
After much deliberation, we at GayPatriot are pleased to announce that Dan Rather has been selected to be the first recipient of the prestigious James Earl Carter Bitter Old Man Award (JEC BOMA). Named in honor of the nations thirty-ninth president, the JEC BOMA honors those men over 70 who, in their dotage, by the very bitterness of their manner, follow in the footsteps of the nations worst president. . . .
