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Saturday, November 01, 2003
posted by gbarto at 7:01 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Iraq: Fear of a Deadly Weekend. Le Monde notes the violence and problems the US is dealing with months after we declared an end to hostilities. That declaration was a mistake; it is time for the president to do something he's pretty resolutely refused to do: concede there's still a war on. I think part of this may relate to the different formal procedures the president must follow for a war - is there something in the war powers act that makes it better for him to say this isn't a war? Regardless, we are at war and here's the thing: for a civilian peacekeeping action, the numbers are terrible; for an open conflict they're amazingly small. Question: Why haven't the White House folks been doing more to start a "golly, I never knew that" conversation about the things we had to deal with in Germany's pacification after WWI and WWII? If the public had in mind what it took to calm a Western nation and settle down fringe elements that didn't want to concede the conflict was over and its side had lost, it might make the problems with Baath and Al-Qaeda seem a little more like something we'd obviously have to deal with but that we could, in the long term, manage. But that would require acknowledging that we're not managing as well as we'd like right now. Will the president tap what reservoirs of goodwill and authority remain and try to bolster his authority, at least, with candor? Admitting the duck's a duck could get a lot of skeptical people more willing to consider his plans for dealing with the duck (to totally abuse a Reagan era metaphor).
Ouest-France has the follow-on to my worries above: Bush: Can he lose in a year? Considering how quickly things can swing back and forth in a year - Bush went from president to loser to president to loser to president a half-dozen times in the last two weeks of the 2000 presidential campaign - of course he can lose in a year. That's why he has to tap his authority - his political capital - to reassure people now: so that next year he's in a better, more secure position where he has set the tone and agenda rather than being where he was in October 2000
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Friday, October 31, 2003
posted by gbarto at 12:50 AM:
Cicero poses an opposition between gangster oligarchs and Putin and wonders why many are bemoaning the fortunes of the former. However you feel about Yukos (Ioukos in my French posting) and its ex-CEO, however, now's a great time to bemoan the actions of the latter, namely a former KGB director who has tossed his best-financed likely rival in the next presidential elections in the clink. If you're invested in Russia, two weeks ago was a great time to get out; if you're invested in Russia transitioning out of the mess it's been in, forget it. This is bad news all round, even if some of the people for whom it's bad news in particular are less than attractive.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:40 AM:
Here's Joanne Jacobs from yesterday's Merc: Job Hunting 101: A degree is often worth $6.75 an hour. MAs are just about as valuable. Hopefully Arnold will get things fixed out here, maybe with the help of that 7.2% growth, which might be just enough to boost tech spending a little.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:35 AM:
French news headlines:(the first from last night when blogger was down)
Le Monde: Poverty Recedes But Affects More Retirees. The headline says it all, though it does leave the question of what's happened to France's vaunted social protections package.
(and now today's headlines)
Le Monde: Kremlin Makes Grab For Ioukos
This is big news - and scary news - for it looks like a gansterish nationalization of - in case no one realizes - the fourth largest oil company in the world, even as it was in negotiations for joint ventures with the second largest oil company - Exxon-Mobil (Royal Dutch Shell is the largest) - and Texaco. That is, a major Dow component's biggest deals in the largest oil source outside the Persian Gulf are probably gone. In the meantime, Putin's Chief of Staff has resigned over the questionable arrest of Yukos' CEO (another company leader got taken in in July). Incidentally, said CEO was thinking about running for President against Putin in a few years. Which is to say that the former KGB head now in charge of Russia seems to be in process of reconverting the country to a dictatorship and he's starting by manipulation of a pliable court to seize private assets of those able to challenge him as well as publicly held assets. In a word, Yikes!Le Figaro and Libération offer a study in glass half-full/half-empty with regard to their favorite bête noire, America:
Le Figaro: Growth: The American Surge. The American locomotive strongly accelerated from July to September. Growth in the US during the period was even stronger than expected: +7.2% according to the Commerce Department's preliminary estimates. Economists had been expecting a figure closer to 6%...
Libération: America Makes a Crisis of Growth. Economists doubt the record rate announced yesterday will be sustainable or sufficient to boost employment.
Ouest-France: "Laïcité begins with tolerance." So sayeth the head of a commission on laïcité. What's that? It's complicated, but basically it refers to France's status as a lay-society - which for them equals freedom of religion rather than government imposed secularism since the antecedent to the present model had France as a subset of the Roman Catholic family, not a people free of a state religion.
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Wednesday, October 29, 2003
posted by gbarto at 2:13 AM:
Cicero hits some pretty salient points regarding the question: Has the US too much democracy? Too little? Reasons he, we should be self-governing. The TurkeyBlog would point out the importance of having a judiciary that won't accept, for example, the gutting of the Bill of Rights, just because leftists hate guns and rightists are leery of the anything goes culture a liberal reading of the 1st amendment licenses. But that's not about being saved by judges, but by a Constitution that the people are ultimately in charge of. Judges defending the Constitution are a-okay; those defending what they feel is best are not. How to draw the line? Fascinating question...* * *
posted by gbarto at 2:06 AM:
French news headlines:Ouest-France: Holiday: Cacophony in Government. Says Ouest-France, they're ready to suppress Pentecost, making it a "come to work to help the elderly" day, but no one is prepared to run with the idea in public.
Libération: Holiday: after the leak, a deluge of criticism.
Le Figaro: Working Pentecost Monday Idea Unleashes Lively Debate.
Le Monde: Immigration Bill Adopted - restricting access to identity cards, government services, etc.
Also Secretary General of Kremlin To Have Resigned - in protest of a Russian oil baron's arrest and what it portends for a free economy.
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Tuesday, October 28, 2003
posted by gbarto at 10:24 AM:
Cover the children's eyes, then tune in for a discussion of Latin vulgarities:The Good Dr. Weevil writes about a proper Latin version of "Shit happens" and proposes, among other possibilities, Stercus accidit. The TurkeyBlog frankly thought this wasn't half-bad. However, in a moment of contemplation of the true metaphysical import of the phrase, I wondered if there might not be another, better answer. From my comment post:
...how about merda cacat - shit shits - which gives you the true sense of what "shit happens" is all about, a mysterious process of self-generation of shit deep within the bowels of the universe, so to speak, along with two vulgarities instead of one?Having less Latin than I'd like, I'm not sure whether my offering parses; we'll have to wait and see if the good doctor comments. So, for the moment get those bumper strips with "Stercus accidit." Or, why not, get "Merda cacat." How likely are you to be pulled over by a persnickety Latinist anyway? All to taste, you know. And if someone does object, you can tell him "Carpe unam vitam" and he'll know that arguing about Latin with you is a lost cause.
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posted by gbarto at 9:32 AM:
Not all the French are Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys. Here's a condensed translation of a sharp editorial from today's Ouest-France.The Strategy of Terror by Joseph LIMAGNE.We ignore Limagne's warning at our peril. Ironically, the turn events have taken are more than anything a proof that we're involved in something very important here. This is terror's big stand to show, in effect, that they can prevent civilization from happening.
After the salvo of rockets against the American quarters from which Paul Wolfowitz, number two at the Pentago, escaped this weeken by some miracle, their came the siege of the International Red Cross... In Iraq, tragedies follow one another in an accelerated rhythm, multiplying the dead and wounded. They are neither the first, nor, alas!, the last.
In August there were deadly attacks against the Jordanian Embassy, ... the UN.... The new wave of bombings confirms what was being said: The war is not over; its nature is changing.
Here on out, the enemy has no flag nor face. It is a disparate enemy. No doubt it includes Saddam loyalists... and Al-Qaeda. One does not know if these combattants of the shadows, with their diverse ideologies, cooperate. It's possible. And even probable.
In any case, they share the same methods. They ignore the rights of war and the Geneva Conventions. The Americans are their first target. These incarnate the reality of the occupation. The continual assaults on them are intended to keep them on the defensive, suspicious, even repressive toward the Iraqi people. In short, to create a chasm of hate between them and the population.
More broadly, the adepts of terror are attacking all foreigners... The Red Cross ... is caught between a desire to pursue its mission and the need to protect its people without locking them up in bunkers. Like the UN, it's reducing its presence.
In the end, the principal victims of the violence are the Iraqis. It's not just about driving foreigners from the country, but about discouraging all the Iraqi nationals who are trying ... to get Iraq back on its feet. Akila al-Hashimi, the only woman on the transitional government council paid for [her efforts] with her life in September....
Talk of an "Iraqi resistance" such as one sees mentioned in the Arab press is misplaced when it refers to those who practice strategies of chaos and scorched earth. But one must admit that their war seems less disorganized, better planned, than previously believed. It's a guerilla war in the offing. It could be long and bloody.
Washington is in the process of understanding this. The American people, too. Certainly the peace demonstrations do not draw large crowds in the US. But a sizeable majority of those polled are worried by GI's falling at a rate of three to five per week and want a speedy return home for the boys.
One year from the presidential elections, one must hope that George W. Bush will not give in to the temptation to abandon Iraq in a rough campaign. That would be a disaster for the Iraqis. But also for the rest of the world. For such an outcome would leave the field wide open, in victory, to side of terror.
Let me repeat that: This is terror's attempt to prevent civilization from happening. We've heard a lot of crap about preserving Islam, about fighting for Mohammed, etc. It's bull. This is not about saving "Islamic civilization" for the Islam these people belong to is incapable of civilization, incapable of achievement. It ruled Afghanistan for several years and it's only "artistic" act was to destroy the Bamayan Buddhas. It came on the world's radar screen by killing, at the WTC, in Saudi Arabia, in Africa, on the Cole, and again at the WTC. But has Al-Qaeda created anything, ever, besides death?
Al-Qaeda is a force, sure, for evil. But also for idiocy. It stands for nothing except the destruction of that which it cannot achieve, and that is everything. One thinks of the Wilde quip, "The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass." Al-Qaeda's dislike of modernity is the rage of Caliban not understanding what he sees in the glass. And so Al-Qaeda seeks to break the glass in the hopes this will shatter what is reflected therein. But it won't.
George W. Bush said the global terror network is the latest ideology headed for the ash-heap of history. And he's right. Because Al-Qaeda cannot make but only react to what has been made. The Nazis and Communists controlled what the natural force of capitalism had helped people to make. They fell when the battle shifted from wielding power to making, to producing things worth having - and on the moral and spiritual as well as material levels. Al-Qaeda goes them one better: It destroys what the natural force of capitalism has helped people to make. We hear Al-Qaeda is clever for using Western technology against us. No, it is too stupid to make its own. Al-Qaeda's use of airliners against the WTC is nothing more than a high-tech version of the monkey's use of a broom to knock some bananas down.
Like Nazism and Communism, Al-Qaeda will perish for want of a proof that it exists for any other reason than to oppose what the course of history has in fact produced - free and capitalistic societies built less on ideology than on the formalization of barter and security relationships man has turned to for the improvement of his lot since time immemorial. But in the mean time, Al-Qaeda has some nasty destructive potential. Do we stamp out this force now? Or wait for it to burn itself out? If we leave Iraq, an Al-Qaeda too stupid to know that blowing up the Bamayan Buddhas is not a cultural "achievement" may think it has won and may proceed apace to do what it did in Afghanistan, namely destroy until there is nothing left to destroy and then look for new things to break. We must thrust the mirror in this Caliban's face, showing it a civilization that exists in spite of its efforts and sending the message to the youth of Arabia that in Al-Qaeda lies not an astonishing new movement for whatever the hell it stands for but a force of yesterday that could kill and maim, sure, but not match in will a free people who are bringing to the world the peace and freedom they know at home. Let's send that message in Iraq, and get this done now, rather than seeing how many ghetto-nations Al-Qaeda can make before this tantrum against history runs its course naturally.
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posted by gbarto at 8:25 AM:
French news headlines at the moment:Le Monde: American disarray in the face of Iraqi trap - that trap being the apparent entry of Al-Qaeda full force into the fray.
Le Figaro: Franco-German Regional Pact Sealed at Poitiers. Suggests Le Figaro, little of substance is changing, but the style is rather bold. And that is something; getting used to hearing the words is often the precursor to acting on them. So, will the European Union established to keep France and Germany from each other's throats find itself thoroughly unbalanced when instead of acting as a counterbalance between the two it has to adjust to them moving with one voice? You bet. It's a good thing they're adding all those countries to the east.
Libération: Pentecost Suspended. After the heat-wave debacle, the government proposed taking one day a year where people would work and the proceeds would go to programs to help the elderly. According to France Soir - a garish, somewhat sensationalist rag, being the first to print pictures in color in France - and Les Echoes - similar to Investors' Business Daily - the government has decided people will go to work the Monday of Pentecost but their salaries will be taken to help the elderly. Hmmmm.
Ouest-France: Bloody Beginning to Ramadan in Baghdad. Incidentally, the French headline did not have the alliteration.
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Monday, October 27, 2003
posted by gbarto at 12:12 AM:
Cicero wonders if the attack on Wolfie's hotel was an assassination attempt. Hmmm. Was Vieira de Mello (the UN envoy) killed by accident? Nope. Open murder of government officials is part of the strategy. Though, in fairness, I don't think a U.S. soldier would be reprimanded if his grenade dismembered Saddam. In the real world, that makes sense since Saddam is a bad guy world wide, whereas Wolfie is with the white hats as far as most everyone outside Berkeley and Tikrit is concerned. And only Berkeley and Tikrit are actively on the side of those who murder UN officials and Iraqis seeking medical care (or is Tikrit coming around?).Okay, I'm demonizing and stigmatizing, but still, those who are so convinced we're the black hats that they'll make Saddam the white hat are a bit, well, confused in their thinking.
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posted by gbarto at 12:03 AM:
French news headlines: 3 of the majors have Iraq up top, but it's Libé that's got the news: Will France go nuclear against "rogue states"? Preventative strikes are on the agenda - even for chemical and biological weapons - and the P.M. has been chatting about nukes as being the most powerful component of France's arsenal rather than as a thing apart.Le Monde: Deadly Bombing At Baghdad Red Cross Le Monde reports 12 dead; Baath is catching up with the California fires.
Le Figaro: America Defied in Baghdad. With unpleasant activities leading up to Ramadan, notably the bombing of the Red Cross and Wolfie's hotel.
Libération: Nuclear: Chirac's Little Bomb. The Président de la République française is to soon announce that France is revising strategies to include strikes on "rogue states" - even of the preventative variety. Using nukes? The PM has used vague language that didn't foreclose it.
Ouest-France: Iraq: Rockets against Wolfowitz.
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Sunday, October 26, 2003
posted by gbarto at 11:44 PM:
They think they're masters of terror:Blasts Rock Central Baghdad
Ten Iraqis killed in car bomb explosion at Red Cross building as millions of Muslims prepare to observe holy month of Ramadan
And when you save Iraq by killing Iraqis seeking medical treatment, you've gotta have something about you messed up. But still, how humiliating it must be to realize that put together a few arsonists and the US Forest Service's (environmentalist-enforced) mismanagement and you've got a deadlier force than the supposedly mighty Baath party:
Calif. Wildfires Kill at Least 13
Blazes scorch 264,000 acres, destroy 650 homes, force mass evacuations
When Saddam's old goons can drive 650 families from their homes, we'll consider them truly deadly. Right now, they're pricks, though it behooves us - as I noted in re the Wolfowitz hotel bombing - to hunt them down and make them miserable now, not wait until the word "quagmire" is the mot juste and not just a bit of inflammatory leftist rhetoric.
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posted by gbarto at 1:05 PM:
Hang the bastards!
And divide their estates among Putnam shareholders
Four Putnam Money Managers Ousted in Market Timing Probe
Capitalism is one thing. Capitalism is good. But this is just robbery. Off with their heads.
Full disclosure: The Turkeyblog might hold a few shares in one or two of their funds.
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posted by gbarto at 1:00 PM:
The TurkeyBlog is shocked. Shocked!Iran Backs Off of Uranium Pledge
Tehran 'studying' enrichment halt
I just never would have seen this coming. An Islamist regime saying nice things to calm the internationalists while the cameras are on, then backing off once the spotlight shifts? What's next?
My faith in humanity is shattered!
Oops. Computer shutdown threatened due to sarcasm spike.
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posted by gbarto at 12:54 PM:
Wolfowitz: Attack won't deter U.S.U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the coalition's mission in Iraq will remain unchanged after his heavily guarded Baghdad hotel was attacked today in a barrage of rockets. Wolfowitz was unhurt in the attack, which killed a U.S. soldier and wounded 15 people, a coalition spokesman said. Sunday evening, U.S. military officials reported hearing two explosions near the hotel.
Actually, the attack should goad the US. It's time that Tikrit and a few other areas be taken apart brick by brick. In the meantime, we should announce that any low level Baath party member with word on the higher ups gets a pass for turning them in but any that stay silent will be held accountable for their superiors' actions - i.e. if you really just joined to get a government job, you can burnish your credentials as innocent of war crimes by giving up loyalty to a party that won't have government jobs to hand out any time soon anyway.
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posted by gbarto at 12:47 PM:
California wildfires spread: Hundreds of homes hit, 2 deadSunday, October 26, 2003 Posted: 11:09 AM EST (1609 GMT)
CLAREMONT, California (CNN) -- Roused from their beds to escape fast-moving wildfires, thousands of people huddled Sunday morning in cars, on the streets and in shelters, waiting for word on the fate of their suburban Los Angeles homes.
Main notes:
- Would better managed forests have gone up less quickly?
- CNN reports:
Both fires are believed to have been deliberately started.
The stress of having their homes threatened by flames is blamed for the deaths of two residents Saturday afternoon.
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posted by gbarto at 12:37 AM:
Trenchant comments from Cicero on the feeding tube issue in Florida. Most importantly, he reminds that this isn't really a right to die case. We don't have an independent person invoking a right to die here. We have someone in a vegetative state who may be left to die or may be kept alive. Either decision will be, de facto, involuntary to the best of our knowledge, because we cannot know the will of the person in question.* * *
posted by gbarto at 12:27 AM:
How do you toss in a word or two in Russian in blogger in a predominately Latin character based page?* * *
French Elections, 1st round
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