Quotes of the week.

“Freedom is not enough.” – LBJ

=> No it’s not. This idea must be applied to Iraq though. While the Iraq people may be “free,” Iraq’s future as a strong democratic society does not look good. With the current civil war going on, it’s almost like an anarachy, because the only political leadership figures in Iraq, and the government structure wouldn’t exist without the protection of the US military. Freedom wasn’t enough in 1800s in the US either, it didn’t mean blacks were treated any better when they became free than when they were slaves.

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“It was accountability that Nixon feared.”-Bob Woodward

=>Alberto Gonzales falls in the same boat.

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“Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.”- Mahatma Gandhi

=> Or what politics is. True, but that doesn’t change the fact that I wish it didn’t have much to do with politics. Morals are one thing, but you can have morals regardless of which religion you follow if any. While it’s important to know a candidate and how that person develops their political view and makes decisions, religion shouldn’t exclude you from politics in a democracy. JFK, for example is the first and only Catholic POTUS (Kerry would have been the second, if he won), and Mitt Romney could possibly be first Morman POTUS. You do not see Hindus, Buddhists or even Cathloics really in elected political office today. And for better or worse, you probably will not see a Muslim holding elected political office in the US for many years.
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“Politics isn't about big money or power games; it's about the improvement of people's lives” –Paul Wellstone

=> I like to believe this, most of the time I do, and I think most people do. It’s difficult to have faith in our system when we live in a money-driven capitalist society.

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“Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.” - Ronald Reagan

=>Good examples: Dan Quayle, Trent Lott, Bill O’Reilly

Blair steps down as PM

Prime Minister Tony Blair recently announced that he will be stepping down as Prime Minister and Labour Party leader. Blair, whose record in office is noted for negotiating peace with Northern Ireland, and supporting the United States in multiple conflicts in the Middle East, has spent over ten years as Prime Minister. Blair has described himself as a social democrat and has raised taxes, introduced a minimum wage, tuition fees and strong identification card legislation in Parliament. In a brief speech, Blair stated “I may have been wrong. That’s your call,” regarding his support, after 9-11, of Afghanistan and later Iraq.

I think he was wrong, but then I guess it’s not my call, I’m not a British citizen. I liked Blair as an international leader, before Iraq, after he banned fox hunting, when he was very supportive of India's tsunami crisis, and when he had more of a focus on diplomacy as opposed to intervention. Blai enjoys reasonable popularity among the voters and members of the Labour Party. Blair's departure is the first of any British MP since the 1970s to be at a time of his choosing.

Blair’s political representative pointed out that Blair would continue to serve in the House of Commons in Parliament until the next expected election in 2009, unless he was given “a major international or United Nations job.” It’s interesting Blair thinks he’s qualified, but honestly out of the world’s current or recent leaders, I think Gerhard Schroeder, Jacques Chirac or even Bill Clinton would be better...all three have had a strong relationship with the UN and international community, and have been involved with several peace negotiations, some of which were successful.

While Blair may say it's been long enough, it's clear to me that the bad situation in Iraq really pushed him to leave office of PM. US policy in Iraq probably won't change though. Blair has been a very close and fierce ally for President Bush (in addition Australian PM John Howard, of course). While you may think this would pressure him to change course in Iraq, Bush has never held high regard for international support of his foreign policy. That won't change now, even with Gordon Brown, the likely successor to Blair, who has a much more anti-Iraq point of view.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18573547/

Another resignation from the DoJ.

Alberto Gonzales may be sticking by his original story, but others around him aren’t. In the wake of a few major resignations like Kyle Sampson (CoS to Gonzales) and Monica Goodling (White House liaison officer), the No.2 guy (Deputy Attorney General) at the Department of Justice announced his resignation earlier today. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, in a letter to other top officials at the DoJ said “The financial realities of college-age children and two decades of public service lead me to a long overdue transition in my career,” making no mention of the firing of the US attorneys. Aides pointed out that McNulty has been planning this for months, but the firings controversy just pushed it along.

I doubt it, McNulty left because he though he’d have to. Especially after giving a testimony where he claimed at least one of the attorneys, Bob Cummins from Arkansas was let go to make room for a friend of Rove’s. This leaves Gonzales in a difficult situation. Despite the President’s support, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Chuck Schumer in particular have started a motion to have a vote of (no) confidence. If this is successful, and it looks as if it may end up that way because several moderate Republicans in the Senate have indicated their disappointment with Gonzales, then President Bush will be under a lot of pressure to let go of him.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18663645/

VA Tech graduation ceremony

Congratulations VA Tech Class of 2007!

Today the Virginia Tech held a graduation ceremony for the class of 2007. This step to move forward comes in the shadow of a tragedy, the shootings from a few weeks ago. The shooter killed 32 students, making the worse campus shooting in the US history. However today, the students were able to honor their fallen classmates as many victims received degrees posthumously. Many speakers (and attendees) wept openly and paused during their speeches.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18620026/

International trade and a possible recession here in the US

Bipartisan international trade agreement and possible recession in the US as a result


Congress and the White House have reached an agreement of international trade policy. House speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that this bipartisan deal aim to put labor and environmental standards at the center of international trade agreements. The new plan is said the lower the effects globalization has on poor nations such as Mexico with its many maquiladora factories and hazardous working conditions for mostly women laborers. Labor needs to be the center if trade debates because labor is always suffering as a result of trade agreements. Women at maquiladora factories travel on foot for 1-2 hours to work for American companies, where they’re required to handle dangerous chemicals for about $6 per day, and no health benefits. In most southeast Asian countries like Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore and India in similar working conditions, wages were about $3 per day 2-3 years ago, and in some of those countries today workers are being paid $ 2 per day. US trade policy needs to try to correct this trend.


Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve (now it’s Ben Bernanke) a sifnicant possibility that the economy of the United States would fall into a recession this year. Earlier this year Greenspan shocked the markets when he first made this announcement, but just recently added on the one-third chance of the recession happening.

There has been a lot of concern in international political economics about the rise in Chinese currency as a result of the large amount of resources flowing into the country (i.e. labor/employment, outsourcing from Europe and other western nations). Their currency is also increasing due to their many international investments, especially in the US. One example is that US took out several billions of $ in loans to pay for reconstruction of New Orleans from China a few years ago. China’s increased role in the US economy (along with a huge increase in foreign investments in the past few year from several countries) , was discussed in Congress last week, and rightly so. Investments from China in the US and American companies outsourcing to China could pull down worker productivity, probably not by much because the US is still the largest economy in the world.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/10/news/economy/trade_agreement.reut/index.htm
http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/11/news/newsmakers/greenspan.reut/index.htm

Funny political quotes

"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband's deaths so much." -Ann Coulter on 9/11 widows who have been critical of the Bush administration

=>No surprise, it's Ann Coulter again. This statement actually generated a lot of controversy and media attention (which was probably Coulter's goal in the first place), resulting in backlash against Coulter. I don't think she ever formally apologized though the widows and other reporters (not Sean Hannity of course) called upon her to do so, and I wouldn't expect her to either.

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"This week, on Tuesday night, in an ironic turnaround, Iraq brought regime change to the U.S." -Amy Poehler, on the 2006 elections

=> This was from the Weekend Update segment of SNL. While the Democrats won last year because of the situation in Iraq, it was not a large enough victory to bring about real change in Iraq policy :\

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"You still have to vote for us 'cause my opponent is a slug, and they're going to tax you into the poorhouse. On the way to the poorhouse, you'll meet a terrorist on every street corner. And when you try to run away from that terrorist, you will trip over an illegal immigrant." -Bill Clinton, on the Republicans' 2006 campaign strategy

=> Hahaha. While you're running away from the terrorist, you will also end up passing several abortion clinics. :)

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"I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, on Vice President Dick Cheney

=>To be fair, Cheney's approval is now up to 25% in recent 2007 polls! Yay for Cheney.

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"I purchased a gun when I was a young man. I've been a hunter pretty much all my life." -Republican Mitt Romney

=> What makes this funny is that Romney later admitted that he's been hunting once when he was 15. Of course Romney's remarks received a lot of applause from gun loving conservatives.

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"A year ago, my approval rating was in the 30s, my nominee for the Supreme Court had just withdrawn, and my Vice President had shot someone. Ahhh, those were the good old days." -President Bush at the Radio-TV Correspondents' dinner

=> It still is in the 30s!

The polls: http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm
See the video: http://politicalhumor.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&cdn=entertainment&tm=10&gps=239_135_1276_855&f=21&su=p284.8.150.ip_&tt=9&bt=1&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DNNrsTDPmPhQ

The secret meeting...

NBC reported a scret meeting took place in the White House with President Bush and 11 top aides.

Tim Russert's take

[O]ne said “My district is prepared for defeat. We need candor, we need honesty, Mr. President.” The president responded, “I don’t want to pass this off to another president. I don’t want to pass this off, particularly, to a Democratic president,” underscoring he understood how serious the situation was.

Brian, the Republican congressman then went on to say, “The word about the war and its progress cannot come from the White House or even you, Mr. President. There is no longer any credibility. It has to come from Gen. Petraeus.” The meeting lasted an hour and 15 minutes and was, in the words of one, “remarkable for the bluntness and no-holds-barred honesty in the message delivered by all these Republican congressmen.”


Some comments from the meeting:

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME):
“Obviously, the president would prefer a straight funding bill with no benchmarks, no conditions, no reports,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). “Many of us, on both sides of the aisle, don’t see that as viable.” [LA Times, 5/3/07]

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN):
“I think we’re still in a fairly toxic political environment,” said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who opposed the president’s troop buildup but voted against the Democratic withdrawal plan. “And I think it will continue like this for a while. That’s the reality.” [LA Times, 5/3/07]

President Bush, from the recent veto battle is more politically isolated on Iraq than ever! Despite spending weeks using his bully pulpit to blister war critics with rhetoric about “abandoning troops” and “timetables for retreat,” public opinion has shifted further away from his position, and conservatives in Congress are breaking ranks. Democrats couldn't bring about a change in Iraq policy, and it doesn't look like Republicans will be able to either.