Friday, January 27, 2006

Democracy

Since the Hamas victory yesterday, I have heard many talking heads make statements such as, "becareful what you ask for" or "Islam is not compatible with Democracy." It seems that both conservatives and liberals are united in the belief that the Hamas victory proved that Bush was wrong for "pushing Western values on the Middle East."

This is complete BS in my humble opinion. I think it is a human right for people to have a say in their government. Why would anyone oppose voting in the Middle East? Are they scared the radical Islamic parties will win?

I hate to break the news to everyone but the Middle East is already full of radical governments. If there are elections then we know that this is the will of the people not just a minority of radicals. It appears that many would rather condemn a large portion of the worlds' population to subjugation, that is heartbreaking.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Flatline (updated)

Only two outcomes that I see with the Hamas victory. 1. Israel sets their own border setting off a war between the two with outside parties being drawn in. or 2. Hamas renounces violence and recognizes Israel and world peace breaks out. (cough, cough, this is good shit)
To be clear I dont think that Hamas will just disarm peacefully but rather I could see them becoming intoxicated with power and therefore change there beliefs in order to maintain power.
Regardless this election is huge, but we need to wait for Israeli elections in March to learn the full implication. For the record I think it is positive to have elections everywhere no matter the outcome. I would rather know that the majority of people want an extremist government, than to be told constantly that the people like us it is just the repressive government that does not.
So much more to say but the semester has started and I have HW.

Friday, January 20, 2006

UN Imperialism????

"We don't listen to anybody," said George Kassi, 19, as he hoisted as a stone to throw at the headquarters of the United Nations mission. "We want the complete liberation of Ivory Coast. I won't go home until the U.N. and France leave my country." complete story

I thought the French and the UN were the good guys? Whenever statements such as these come are directed towards the US they are instantly legitimate. These are the same type of statements coming out of France and the UN in regards to the Iraq war.

I know it is popular to say that the only reason that we have any attachment to the Middle East is because of the oil. But to that I say so what! At least we care and are engaged in the region. Africa is more chaotic and worse off than the Middle East. When the Middle East does stabilize (at some point it has to)there will be an even bigger mess in Africa.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

The Truce

Please tell me none of the Democrats will be so stupid as to suggest we discuss Bin Ladens truce? It really saddens me to ask such a dumb question but with Democrats such as Dennis Kucinich or Barabara Lee, I am not sure. tick-tock-tick-tock

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Labor Unions

Labor Union reps in San Francisco were outraged that Gov. Schwarzenneger attended the MLK breakfast. complete story.
This is why I dislike labor unions. Although most people in labor unions are blue collar, conservative people, the leadership has gone extremely left.
This exploitation of MLK by SF unions is disgusting.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

The Kennedy's

I saw a documentary named "Kennedy's: The Curse of Power"(? at least I think that was the name). Holy Shit, this is a screwed up family. I never realized that the father Joe, was a NAZI sympathizer, nor did I know that he had his daughter get a lobotomy. A FREAKING LOBOTOMY. How anyone from this family was ever elected to position I have no idea.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Alito & CAP

Alhtough I think Alito seems like a stellar candidate, his denial of any knowledge of his membership in CAP (Concerned Alumni of Princeton) seems, shall we say, tough-to-believe. I would think that he should be able to remember involvement or at least what the club stood for. His continual denial about anyknowledge of the issues that the club cared about is difficult for me to believe. He is an extremely intelligent person and he should remember the club if he thought enough of it to list it in his resume. The Democrats claim the club favors keeping women and minorities enrollment low. It probably means that they oppose affirmative action, which is much different.
After Sen. Kennedy read various quotes from articles in CAP newsletters, Alito denied any knowledge of the articles and distanced himself from the comments. He went further and said he would not have been part of the organization had he known the organization held these views. He claims that he joined because of the schools objectional treatment of the ROTC program.
While I believe that the ROTC was probably a large part of the reason he joined, it seems suspicious to me that he knew nothing else about the club. Kennedy is demanding the committe vote to subpoena the CAP records, this seems reasonable since Alito is denying any active invovlement in the group.
It is important to note that I do not believe his involvement with CAP is bad or should keep him out, just that it is hard for me to believe that he knew nothing of this alumni group that he joined. If he is lying about his involvement then I think that is a reason to vote against him.
(note: I am in agreement with Sen Kennedy, which besides being very troubling to me, also means I could be wrong)

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Husband's Rights?????

During the Alito hearings today, Dianne Feinstein quoted Justice O’Conner, in reference to Planned Parenthood v Casey, “The state may not give to a man the kind of dominion and control over his wife that parents exercise over their children”. This quote suggested that Alito was equating wives with children when he ruled that married women must notify their husbands before having an abortion. This is and was an attempt to cloud the issue. Feinstein using this quote is her attempt to frame the argument of one of Women’s rights, however it is not so. Marriage is a contract that enforces shared responsibility on all parties. For example, if a woman gets the abortion, something goes wrong, and she needs to go to a real hospital, the husband will be financially responsible for those bills. If she dies, he will incur the cost. Not to mention the fact that the baby is his and he should at least know that this decision is being made. I realize that men do not have the same rights to their unborn children but certainly we are due the respect of notification. Alito simply ruled that a woman notifying her husband did not equate an undue burden save for some exceptions: full text


1. If the husband is not the father of the child
2. If he cannot be found after diligent effort
3. The pregnancy was a result of a spousal sexual assault and the authorities have been notified
4. The notification will lead to bodily harm on the woman

If it is, an undue burden for a wife to tell her husband that she is aborting their child then marriage need not worry about some alleged threat from gays because it is already meaningless.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Sharon's Stroke

What a difference a month makes. This stroke could not have come at a worse time. Sharon (for better or worse) was going to forge ahead on a peace plan even if he had to draw the lines himself. I cannot imagine what the majority of Isrealis are thinking. Sharon was able to transform himself from a right-wing hawk into a centrist working for peace. I cannot remember such a drastic transformation of a political figure in recent times.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

USC vs TEXAS

First off, great game Vince Young played his ass off. But USC clearly got out-coached. If they would have played old school football, kick the ball on the 4th(if 4th and 1 was easy every team would go for it) they would have won. It's 4th down and 2, ball on the 45, USC has a 5 point lead and they go for it????? Bad decision, but understandable because Young was torching their defense and the only way USC could gaurauntee a victory was to keep the ball. They should have punted the ball and made Young go 80 yards regardless. But the decision to go for it on 4th and 1, at the 17, the 17!!!!!!!! The worst coaching decision in a big game that I have evere seen. USC was up 7-0, why in the world would they not kick the field goal????? Lastly, they wasted their last time out on a 2-point conversion play, with only 19 seconds left. Keep the time out!!!!!Their was no need for USC to make a statement or try and finish Texas off in one blow last night. USC was the better team and should have acted like it. Championship teams take points and do not have to take chances like that. Texas, I could understand because they needed something big to win. USC provided the opportunities with the two 4th downs and the Bush lateral. Props to Texas for taking advantage.