FYI
With the media understandably focused on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I thought I would list a few other news stories I found interesting.
1. John Bolton wastes no time in proving that he is, in fact, an asshole
2. FDA official resigns over contraception policy
3. Americans love it when science is "enhanced" by religion
4. My favorite baseball team sucks
5. A Turkish novelist is jailed for mentioning the Armenian genocide
1. John Bolton wastes no time in proving that he is, in fact, an asshole
2. FDA official resigns over contraception policy
3. Americans love it when science is "enhanced" by religion
4. My favorite baseball team sucks
5. A Turkish novelist is jailed for mentioning the Armenian genocide
posted by Samwick @ 5:13 AM
17 Comments:
At 11:34 AM,
1138 said…
You missed the US military bombing of villages in western Iraq.
A multitude of sins are hidden by the distractions.
At 11:35 AM,
1138 said…
Looking forward to you joining us at Good Company
At 4:44 PM,
Damien said…
I'd love to see that on the CNN news tracker -
'John Bolton grade A, ass wipe butt monkey'.
Hearing everyone on the whole emergence of the right wing religious nuts and the creationist thing, i want what they're smoking.
At 11:05 PM,
Anonymous said…
Because this quote is obviously a really bad thing.
He also inserted language on weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. The original statement makes an "appeal to all states to take action, unilaterally, bilaterally or multilaterally to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery." To that, Bolton added "and the possibility that terrorists might acquire such weapons."
Yep, I can see that we would NOT want that in UN policy on preventing proliferation of WMD's.
At 11:33 PM,
Samwick said…
Hi Eric. Bolton made 750 changes. Statistically he was bound to get one or two right. And the real problem is not the changes. It's the fact that he made so many and then submitted them at the last second. His intention was to derail the original UN document. If there were problems with it, and I'm sure there were, options were available for dealing with it in a legitimate manner. But rather than going forward in legitimate way, Bolton chose to be a spineless little beaurocrat and obstruct the process. His job is not to be a diplomat but to punish the UN for not acting like Bush's little lap dog. He is there to be disruptive and these changes were step one in the process.
You can agree with some of his changes but I don't think anyone can honestly state that Bolton went about this in the appropriate way.
At 12:03 AM,
Anonymous said…
Matt, since, in my opinion, the UN is a completely corrupt and ineffective organization that is used by the majority of its members to attack American interests, I have no problem whatsoever with derailing the vast majority of what the UN does or tries to do.
At 12:48 AM,
Samwick said…
That's fine. I'm just disgusted with how petty we are. Rather than simply announce that the UN is corrupt and withdraw, we're allowing Bolton to act like a petty thug. He doesn't have the backbone to openly confront these guys, he's just using these ridiculous little maneuvers to disrupt things. Bush is having him act like a class clown and it's a little embarrassing.
"the UN...is used by the majority of its members to attack American interests"
Eric, the UN is a fancy name for what is essentially a collection of other countries. Why would you expect non US countries to do anything other than get in our way? We have power, obviously other countries will want to chip away at that power. Surprise, other countries are not employees of the Unites States and are not, therefore, simply going to roll over for us. It just seems like a lot of people are upset with the UN for being exactly what it is designed to be.
At 12:52 AM,
Samwick said…
impulsivecompulsive: Seriously, there's something wrong with the fact that I'm the least disturbed by the article about the Turkish writer
Well, it's understandable. Turkey has always denied the genocide, probably always will. It's just disgusting that the US is so desperate to appease Turkey that we aren't even allowed to recognize it. We're invading other countries to supposedly spread democracy, yet we're more than happy to join Turkey in it's genocide denial.
1138: You missed the US military bombing of villages in western Iraq
I did miss that, thanks for the mention.
1138: Looking forward to you joining us at Good Company
Thanks, I'm looking forward to joining in. Things have been crazy here this week, hopefully I can sign up by the weekend. Sorry for the delay.
Damien: i want what they're smoking
Me too. I think they're actually smoking pages from the bible. They're just inhaling that stuff now, they can't get enough of it.
At 1:04 AM,
Anonymous said…
Oh, sorry, that isn't meant to say I expect those countries to behave any differently. It's meant to say that I have no compunctions about our government trying to derail what they are doing.
Acronym fun with the "word verification":
lgsmbfd - lazy girls sing melodies - big fucking deal
At 1:26 AM,
Samwick said…
Eric, your'e a natural at this verification game.
pyangzc
puny yams are not going zipper crazy
*sigh* My verification kung fu is weak.
At 2:09 AM,
Sheryl said…
"the UN is a completely corrupt and ineffective organization that is used by the majority of its members to attack American interests, I have no problem whatsoever with derailing the vast majority of what the UN does or tries to do."
Eric,
This is funny to read. People on the left frequently complain that the problem with the UN is that the US has too much power in it.
Have you ever visited the United Nations website to see what they actually do do? Or are you taking the American media's version of it on face value?
As best I can tell from watching UN TV online, the United Nations spends a great amount of their time on issues that don't concern the United States one way or the other. Like tribal turmoil in Africa or stopping the asian flu, etc.
If you think that their priority is in obstructing American interests, it just shows that you need a more reliable source of information to draw your conclusions from.
ivcyuwnh
In various cultures you use words nobody hears.
At 5:12 PM,
Anonymous said…
Sheryl, please excuse a quick comment for seeming to only address one issue with the UN. It would surprise me if anyone actually thought the UN wasn't corrupt, but that's as may be.
My primary source of information on the UN is neither the New York Times nor the UN itself, but that's as may be.
As far as the other things they do, the majority of it tends to make the situation worse, not better, as is typical of any large government type bureaucracy.
If the left thinks the US has too much power within the UN they are more deluded than I am ;-).
dcqthlh - deal cards quickly towards harry leaping high
At 6:44 PM,
Snave said…
Matt, we are "favorite teams suck" buddies. My favorite team, the Seattle Mariners, also sucks this year. My second favorite team is the Cubs, and they also suck. I'm also a Tigers fan, and they're mediocre. I like the Cards too (sorry) and am glad I will have at least one team to cheer for in baseball's playoffs this year. Also, I have been a fan of the Portland Trailblazers since their inception, so my favorite NBA team sucks mightily. Re. the NFL, the jury is still out on the Seahawks and the Lions this year.
Bolton? Feh! What a pile of feces. Leave it to the administration to send a guy whose suggestions for "reforms" would include getting the U.N to o.k. unprovoked invasions. I think the U.S. does see some value in the U.N., but with the current administration that value may be only for using the U.N. as a tool to achieve Pax Americana.
lmzjp = love Matt's zany judicious politics
Not that they're zany, they're right on.
At 11:48 PM,
Sheryl said…
"As far as the other things they do, the majority of it tends to make the situation worse, not better, as is typical of any large government type bureaucracy.
Actually the nature of bureaucracy is that some areas work quite well and some work horribly, depending on who is heading that particular arm of the bureaucracy. But then I am not one to make generalizations, particularly about anything as large scale as a bureaucracy.
Take the Food For Oil scandal in the UN. It's peanuts compared to some of the crap that has gone on in the US government in bidding contracts in Iraq. The difference is that the UN has the integrity to clean up their act when things are corrupt, whereas here we just shove everything under the rug in well time media blitzes.
Secondly, if you look at what has really destroyed this country, it is not big government. It is the privitization of government contracts out to private companies who legally bribe the government with campaign contributions to make sure that the terms of those contracts are so specialized that they will automatically get them. That's not the government bureaucracy, it if the private sector leaching off government resources. Namely our tax dollars.
And as far as bureacracy, considering the state of the US media these days, I am personally thankful for some level bureacracy because it's folks like the inspector generals of all arms of our government who are actually exposing the corruption within our government through their regular audits. It's supposed to be the media who exposes corruption, but they have been bought out. So if weren't for the auditors, who are nothing but bureacrats, there would be zero oversight.
So I not only disagree with your assessments of the United Nations. I also disagree with your blanket generalizations about big government. Nothing keep things cleaner than decentralization. Conservatives argue for it all the time in terms of states rights. But can you get more decentralized than a big government. It may result in some areas of government being corrupt, but it means that if there is corruption it is generally localized.
Oh, and as long as I am bringing up the centralization versus decentralization issue, perhaps you can tell me why after arguing states rights on the grounds of decentralization for so long the conservatives limited the number of authorized companies to put out electronic voting machines to something like less than 10? What's the point to decentralized states rights if the power is centralized into the hands of less than 10 private companies? But you will be happy to know that they didn't bog the Election Assistance Commission down with an inspector general, as they were required by law. Gosh, it's good to know that the United Nations is so corrupt.
At 3:19 AM,
Samwick said…
Snave: with the current administration that value may be only for using the U.N. as a tool to achieve Pax Americana.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. I think that is Bolton's entire purpose, he is the UN's punishment for not helping us in Iraq. We're sending the message: be our little lap dog or we'll disrupt the process.
At 11:15 AM,
Anonymous said…
Sheryl wrote: Oh, and as long as I am bringing up the centralization versus decentralization issue, perhaps you can tell me why after arguing states rights on the grounds of decentralization for so long the conservatives limited the number of authorized companies to put out electronic voting machines to something like less than 10?
Since I'm not a "conservative", I can't tell you why. I'm neither a member of the GOP (I used to be, then the neo-cons took over), nor an ideological conservative. So, no, I can't tell you why. I can tell you what I think, though. Just like the Democrats, the GOP is discovering that power corrupts.
Your other points are good, as generalizations go :-). But they tackle symptoms, and surface issues, without getting to the deeper issues. It would take far too long to explain what I mean for it to be a comment on someone else's blog. If you want to know what I mean, come read what I have to say on my own blog.
You accuse me of making generalizations, as if that is bad. It is good to understand the general principles of how something works. But, this is classic politics of our modern day and age. Rather than try to understand the larger principles at work, we pick out the minutia and debate it endlessly ..... which plays into the hands of the single party masquerading as two that runs our lives now. Are there exceptions? Yes, there are, but exceptions don't necessarily invalidate the general principle.
Oh, and one last comment. No organization, ever, has integrity, only people have integrity.
gfbvt - government fun buns ... view them
At 3:01 PM,
Sheryl said…
If only people have integrity, then isn't it a mistake to damn an entire institution like the United Nations as "corrupt"? Or throw out words like "bureaucracy," which damns the institution rather than holding individuals accountable for their part in it?
I think the problem for bureacracies is that they are either accustomed to doing things a certain way because they have always done something a certain way or they are in transition from legislators reorganizing them.
Like it would have made perfect sense for the Federal Elections Commission to have handled the electronic voting machines in our last election, but instead of letting that well established and organized arm of government handle the election, they created a new branch of government and then held off funding till the last minute, so that they could make excuses that they didn't have time or resources to do things properly. And then the guy Bush appointed to head the Elections Assistance Commission was a christian pastor. You know, the same guy promoting the idea that we maybe should cancel the election for fear of a terrorist attack? I think he was working in Bush's faith based initiaitives before he got appointed to run thay part of our elections, so clearly there are political agendas behind which people are appointed to run agencies. Just as there are political agenda in terms of which contractors receive government contracts. But that is not the bureaucracy at work. It's the political attempts to undermine the bureacracy.
Fortunately Soaries has resigned. I wonder who replaced him, but then resigning is also a way to bypass accountability, eh?
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