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Politics USA
May 24, 2005
Heh heh, this is old news but I didn't notice it at the time - GWB is bringing an aircraft carrier with him to the G8 summit!The aircraft carrier is about giving America the capability to do lots of things...
May 05, 2005
Brazil bravely takes a stand against US Aid funding because it believes that the no-abortion, pro-abstinence and anti-prostitution conditions would be counter productive.Yesterday Pedro Chequer, the director of Brazil's HIV/Aids programme, said the government had managed to resist US pressure...
February 22, 2005
No, not those ones. WhiteHouseTapes.org (at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs) is making more than 5000 presidential recordings, from Roosevelt to Nixon, available online for listening.At the moment the home page is touting LBJ discussing actress...
November 28, 2004
It is both interesting and timely to revisit Condoleezza Rice's piece, Campaign 2000: Promoting the National Interest from the Jan/Feb 2000 issue of Foreign Affairs. She suggests that US Foreign Policy should refocus on the US National Interest and the...
November 07, 2004
Two interesting articles came to notice today, the first in which Henry Kissinger looks at Iraq, North Korea and Atlantic Relations. On the latter he notes that, "The impasse is partly due to the fact that the generation that formed...
November 06, 2004
So being culturally sensitive, I asked Anna-Lisa why Arkansas is pronounced Arkansaw. She had a theory but it was nonsense. She isn't from those parts. In short it's the fault of a dyslexic explorer, the Frenchies and the Injuns....
November 05, 2004
In these seemingly polarised times the pictures below [Via Kottke] show that it is not acceptable, fair nor accurate to write off "America" as right wing, gun toting, abortion hating, gay bashing, war mongering, self centred, fundamentalist loonies. There are...
October 20, 2004
The US request for British troop cover is curious. Curious that the US allows itself to be in the position of asking.Rumsfeld: To the extent they're not [able to participate], there are workarounds and they would not be involved, at...
October 18, 2004
Article in today's NYT, Without a doubt, which discusses GWB's 'faith based presidency'. It has some nice anecdotes...Lantos went on to describe for the president how the Swedish Army might be an ideal candidate to anchor a small peacekeeping force...
October 15, 2004
Brent Scowcroft, National Security Advisor to both Presidents Ford and G.H.W. Bush, comments on G.W. Bush's unilateralism and love-in with Israel's Ariel Sharon in yesterday's FT - Scowcroft lambasts Bush's unilateralism. Mr Scowcroft said the US's initial failure to take...
October 14, 2004
Random notes! Oh, just when I thought it couldn't get worse Bush turned religious fanatic talking with zeal about Freedom in Afghanistan being a gift from the Almighty. "Litany of complaints doesn't make a plan" v. "Integrity, Integrity, Integrity" I...
October 06, 2004
I just watched the debate between Vice President Dick Cheney (Republican) and Senator John Edwards (Democrat). Absolutely no substance to it whatsoever - accusations and counter accusations. Naturally I preferred John Edwards message of hope and sunshine and his liberal...
August 05, 2004
I know it's cheap but...“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we,” Bush said. “They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” [MSNBC]...
July 30, 2004
Naomi Klein quote,The other day, I was ranting to a friend about Kerry's vicious support for the apartheid wall in Israel, his gratuitous attacks on Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and his abysmal record on free trade. "Yeah," he agreed sadly....
I watched John Kerry's performance at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and thought he came across pretty well. Confident. Relaxed. He talked about the Economy, Health, Education and Security - nothing ground breaking. Played up the Navy career a fair...
July 29, 2004
Niall Ferguson writes in A world without power that "the alternative to a single superpower is not a multilateral utopia, but the anarchic nightmare of a new Dark Age."If the United States retreats from global hegemony—its fragile self-image dented by...
July 22, 2004
Paul Krugman writes in The Arabian Candidate that,nothing in Mr. Bush's record would make [Osama] unhappy at the prospect of four more years while simultaneously Aaron refutes the bumper sticker propaganda (Kerry is bin Laden's Man/Bush is My Man)....
July 01, 2004
Via Ask (via Kottke), a short interview with Ronald P. Reagan (President Ronald W. Reagan's son). Kottke summarises nicely, "Sometimes the apple falls far, far from the tree." It's full of gem's viz On Dick Cheney, "I don't think he's...
June 29, 2004
I was chatting with Gregor asking what he thought of Bush's chance of re-election, he forwarded me an article [premium content] from The Economist which included an interesting theory of how voters minds work - A Drama in Three Stages.Most...
Condoleeza Rice: Mr. President, Iraq is sovereign. Letter was passed from Bremner at 10:26 AM Iraq time -- CondiGeorge W. Bush: Let Freedom reign! "Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience...
June 28, 2004
Nice idea. A reprise of Lincoln's Cooper Union speech from February 27, 1860 delivered in the same building on May 5th 2004.Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer and actor Sam Waterson of NBC’s "Law and Order" fame embarked upon a modern social...
Interesting article in the New York Times, U.S. is seen losing it's edge."There has been a U-turn," he said. "The U.S. has realized that the U.N. has a legitimacy and a weight that the coalitions of the willing don't have."...
June 24, 2004
US drops war crime immunity claim - Several council members said the abuse of detainees in Iraq and the opposition of the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, to renewing the exemption for a third year were factors in their refusal...
Whilst browsing books today I noticed a footnote commenting that the final payment to the United States of America from the United Kingdom for assistance provided during and in the aftermath of the Second World War is payable in 2006....
June 19, 2004
Odd piece of news today, "Putin says Iraq planned US attack."Russian President Vladimir Putin says that after the 9/11 attacks Moscow warned Washington that Saddam Hussein was planning attacks on the US. He said Russia's secret service had information on...
June 16, 2004
The Iraq Adventure is either madness or genius, either way the effects will be wide ranging and will significantly shape the rest of this century. These are just random, not necessarily connected thoughts floating in my head after reading a...
May 29, 2004
Gavin highlights an article which asks Will Europeans be happier if Kerry is elected? And will it improve relations? Interesting. Hugely important area of debate. If John Kerry was elected and he sought the engagement of European governments in multilaterally...
May 26, 2004
There's an interesting interview with Niall Ferguson in The Atlantic, "Our Imperial Imperative." Amongst the many interesting comments Ferguson, an advocate of American imperialism, says of a premature evacuation of Iraq...fairly straightforward lessons of what I would call imperial history...
May 14, 2004
Jon Snow's characterisation (via Snowmail 13th May) of Rumsfeld's impromptu trip to Iraq seems a pretty accurate portrayal of the Secretary of Defense's remarks.Donald Rumsfeld has taken an emergency dash to Baghdad and, within moments of landing, started to talk...
