Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Politics As Usual
All this solemn posturing over the fifth anniversary of 9-11 is just sickening! Even the New York Times succumbed, leading off on 9-11 itself with a sappy article about W. and Laura placing a wreath on the World Trade Center site.
Yes, yes, we are sorry about the nearly 3,000 people who died in that terrorist strike. But what about the nearly 3,000 people who have died since then in Iraq--and that's just the Americans in Iraq, that doesn't count the Americans in Afghanistan, and the thousands of people of other nationalities who have died in the violence spawned by the Bush Administration's stupid, ill-conceived response to 9-11.
Meanwhile, here's a story that's barely receiving any press at all. In Mexico, the Presidential elections were decided by Supreme Court vote--oh-so-much like what happened in this country in 2000, with Gore vs. Bush. And guess who won? Felipe Calderon, the conservative candidate, backed by the U.S. against the leftist challenger, the mayor of Mexico, Manuel Andres Lopez Obrador. Did someone say those ballot boxes were tampered with? Hell yes they were! But what with all the hoopla over the fifth anniversary of 9-11, this sabotaging of justice just went unremarked int the mainstream press. The Times practically fawned all over Calderon.
And while the champagne flowed in Las Lomas de Chapultepec, the followers of Lopez Obrador cried with fury and grief.
Once again democracy is flouted in Mexico! But if we can't trust in the democratic process in the United States, how should we trust it anywhere else in the world?
Ordinary people (what the odious commentator David Brooks calls "human capital") desire a world in which life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness FOR ALL matter more than dividends and tax breaks for the wealthy elite. How many tears must be shed, how much blood must be lost, how many years do we have to wait for this simple and powerful vision to become reality?
Mexicans are not taking the outrageous appointment of a conservative President lightly. La Jornada, a big Mexico City daily newspaper, decried the appointment of Calderon as a move likely to further polarize the country.
And over in the beautiful little town of Oaxaca, which I remember fondly from my travels in Mexico, a group of teachers has been striking in the zocalo, or main square, all summer long, trying to oust the corrupt governor of the state of Oaxaca. This is the way change has always happened: people getting angry and frustrated enough with the usual channels (such as elections) to put their bodies on the line to demand change.
What will it take to get the ordinary citizens of the US out of their chairs, away from their computers and TV screens, and into the streets?
Yes, yes, we are sorry about the nearly 3,000 people who died in that terrorist strike. But what about the nearly 3,000 people who have died since then in Iraq--and that's just the Americans in Iraq, that doesn't count the Americans in Afghanistan, and the thousands of people of other nationalities who have died in the violence spawned by the Bush Administration's stupid, ill-conceived response to 9-11.
Meanwhile, here's a story that's barely receiving any press at all. In Mexico, the Presidential elections were decided by Supreme Court vote--oh-so-much like what happened in this country in 2000, with Gore vs. Bush. And guess who won? Felipe Calderon, the conservative candidate, backed by the U.S. against the leftist challenger, the mayor of Mexico, Manuel Andres Lopez Obrador. Did someone say those ballot boxes were tampered with? Hell yes they were! But what with all the hoopla over the fifth anniversary of 9-11, this sabotaging of justice just went unremarked int the mainstream press. The Times practically fawned all over Calderon.
And while the champagne flowed in Las Lomas de Chapultepec, the followers of Lopez Obrador cried with fury and grief.
Once again democracy is flouted in Mexico! But if we can't trust in the democratic process in the United States, how should we trust it anywhere else in the world?
Ordinary people (what the odious commentator David Brooks calls "human capital") desire a world in which life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness FOR ALL matter more than dividends and tax breaks for the wealthy elite. How many tears must be shed, how much blood must be lost, how many years do we have to wait for this simple and powerful vision to become reality?
Mexicans are not taking the outrageous appointment of a conservative President lightly. La Jornada, a big Mexico City daily newspaper, decried the appointment of Calderon as a move likely to further polarize the country.
And over in the beautiful little town of Oaxaca, which I remember fondly from my travels in Mexico, a group of teachers has been striking in the zocalo, or main square, all summer long, trying to oust the corrupt governor of the state of Oaxaca. This is the way change has always happened: people getting angry and frustrated enough with the usual channels (such as elections) to put their bodies on the line to demand change.
What will it take to get the ordinary citizens of the US out of their chairs, away from their computers and TV screens, and into the streets?
