[ That is my point. Jack Straw may be making statements to put the Iranians off guard. Now that Bush has legitimately won his second tern it is just not conceivable the his "axis of evil" will be free from American attention. I predict a great deal of turmoil in the Middle Esat over this and other issu
To say that Bush is not a popular president is false! If he were not polpular he would not have won the *popular The popularity of Bush has been established and as I have said the "people have spoken" and that is the right way yo look at it. However, the real troubling question is why when conventional
I meant the political cost of doing such a thing not the technical capability.
John Kerry lost not because he ran a negative campaign as Draginol seems to imply, but because of the unexpected and totally unwarranted display of desert theatre by Osama Bin Laden. This man thought that he could pull a Spain on the USA. Had he not made his presence felt just 3 days before the election, the result could have been cl.oser. However, given the marin of victory the Osama Tape may have had a negative impact. Kerry was affected by this a
Like many I too felty that John Kerry will win, but in the best tradition of Democracy, I salute George Bush who has been elected with a plurality of nearly 3.7 million votes. John Kerry showed grace in letting go of the election, though he could have made things difficult in Ohio. To say that George Bush is a highly popular politician would be incorrect, but he has
There aretwo different issues that ate being conflated in the Blog by Draginol. First, American civil society, its culture, its values and of course, pop culture are not red rags to anyone. One may have an opinion on any of these issues and a negative opinion does not make anyone anti american. Now, USA and its military, its Pentagon, ots CIA, its corporations and vested interests are an entirely different issue. I do not think that if the A
By this time tomorrow the USA will either have a new president or for another 5 weeks there will be political bickering. In either case the President cannot avoid the following issues for too long. Iraq: The USA stands alone on this issue and the news from Fallujah is not encouraging. Deadly attacks on civillian targets is denting the image of the U
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Draginol, as usual you have made a few outrageous statements. The civillian war casualities in Iraq are by the most conservative estimate nore that !100,000. Bush and Blair by their policy of usinf air strikes in civillian areas have caused the death of a large number of un armed non combatants. I think one has to be sensitive to the fact that the US media is not telling the whole story of the War and hence the Internet has become an important source
It isn't going to happen. You know why? He didn't get enough signatures to get on the ballot. Now just how is that the fault of the e Ralh Nader was completely ignored by the Media. Why was he not given a place at the high table of Presidential debates. Just because he represents a libertarian strand in
I do believe in the freedom of expression. I may disagree with my fellow "bloggers" but I will defend their right to express themselves. Blocking out the views which are unacceptable for political reasons is a form of censorship and the Internet must be free.
The nuclear ambitions of the Islamic regime in Theran is causing a great deal of disquiet amongst the Europeans and of course, the USA. Iran has learnt an important lesson from the exprience of Iraq. In 1981 Israel with the tacit support of the Reagan Administration bombed the Osirak Reactor therby indicating to the world that the West will not permit an Islamic count
They also realized that Chamberlains complacency towards Hitler and America's Isolationist attitude would eventually force us all to pay an even higher price. I suspect that you and I would not be expressing our opposing views in this public forum There is a fundamental difference between the 1930s and
Seldom in the history of the world do we see the strange sight of two "democratically"elected leaders whose fate is bound together in a deadly embrace.Tony Blair came to power in England offering a way out of Thatcherism and improving public health, education and welfare. In the 7years he has been in power he has shown little inclination of fulfilling these and other
I think the reason why there is so much interest in the Kerry campaign all over the world is because he is in the best position to defeat George II. Interest does not mean endorsement. I have already discussed this in my Blog "The Kerry Test anfd American Foreign policy" To say that Kery would be a weak and spineless leader is false as he has been tested under fire. Further, as Thucydides said in his History of the Peloponesian War, people w
I went to graduate school at the University of Hawaii[Manoa} and spent 7 years there. Now reading this piece reminded me of my days at Honolulu more than 20 years back and have not been back since. I live far far away but I still remember Oahu. This is my list: Bishop Museum is too great a place for any one to miss. It has the world's largest collection od Hawaiian artifacts. Nort Shore is a rock place and the sea is rather rough, but a wonderful pla
The fact that the papers have such a strong preference for Kerry tells you just how far outside the mainstream Bush is, and how negatively his policies have affected America. It is not surprising that the newspapers are endorsing Kerry. In fact the credibility of the mainstream media has fallen because
I must say that much of what you write has been discussed by Niall Ferguson in hixs latest work. In fact if you read my own posting on the Websitwe you will notice that we have been sayuing the saME THING IN DIFFERENT ways. Now all empires must pass, but the USA is out to make or remake the world in its own image and is encountering resistance the world over. The AMERICAN RESPONSE in extremely aggressive which makes the situation worse. This genera
When the Watergate scandal broke out more than 30 years back two journalists working with the Washington Post were instrumental in exposing the deciet and tissue of lies and falsehoods which clouded the excecutive branch at that time. This led to the exit of Richard Nixon from the White House. The Watergate was at best a botched attempt at political skullduggery, bu
The point is the unfairness of the electoral process which foregrounds two lare parties with little to differentiate between them. Money Bags, Haliburton fat cats and corrupt corporate types are on one side the other side all these plus the common Joe. That is why these elections are so important. This morning I saw the CNN report on thwe voting decision of the 2 million Arab- American. They are going the Kerry way. On top of this, as I stated in my
The US idea of democray has been changing and so has the constitution. In the present system there is political space only for two large parties who like tweedledum and tweldedee or vitually clones of each other.I may point out that the USA did not have an electoral college system of voting in the beginning of its history. It is the Twelfth Ammendment that introducdeed it. While simpleminded majoritarianism is not being advocated by me,I do feel that
That Bush may lose is becoming conventional wisdom, but not because of oil prices. Unemployment is at an all time high, job creation is at an all time low and yet Bush and his Bushmen do not seem to understand that the war ibn Iraq is slowly becoming American versus the rest of the world. This is a dngerous drift and only Kerry can stop this. One can say that Kerry who voted for the war is as much part of the problem as is Bush. But htere is a critic
I enjoyed this piece. Like many things the first settles in the Pacific borrowed a great deal without always acknowledging the origin or the source. When one thinks of Hawaii we get the image of surfing. The first surfers were the ancient Hawaiians who used to surf on the majestic waves where the Hotels Of Waikkiki stand. If you visit Bishop Museum while at Oahu you will be able to see the first surf boards made two hundred years ago. Who can forget t
When the American Constitution was framed in the eighteenth century, after the Continental Congress decided to form a federal republic the U S was certainly the mostmdemocratic nation in a world where kings and queens still reigned. Madison in the Fedaralist argued for a Republic. The great historian fron John Hopkins University J G A Pocock in his books h
I do not understand why you did not just take something you obviously wanted so deeply. Any thought about the sanctity of private property. Perish the thought. Afterall someone had junked the sofa set and if you could find a use for it you should have just taken it. When we can take more sacred objects like land and so on why not a used sofa set out in a trash bin.
I do not understand why you did not just take something you obviously wanted so deeply. Any thought about the sanctity of private property. Perish the thought. Afterall someone had junked the sofa set and if you could find a use for it you should have just taken it. When we can take more sacred objects like land and so on why not a used sofa set out in a trash bin.