Link: Daily Show. As Jon says, "Have pride in a government that allows for such a peaceful non-transfer of power." (Seriously, does it make any sense to have an inauguration for a second term?) The Freedom 27 - Liberty 15 final score that Hamlet refers to was part of the show yesterday, where Jon commented: "It was a noble effort by Liberty, which as you know has been playing hurt since the PATRIOT Act."
If the result of Bush's rhetoric is a foreign policy that promotes liberty throughout the world, this is a vital mission. Given the success of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine (BTW, Yushchenko's inauguration is this Sunday! Link.) we need to ramp up support of democratic / libertarian movements everywhere. I wish Bush had spoken out more openly about Ukraine than he did. I hope that he will speak out more in the future, when it comes to movements in other countries. My hope is that we will create the greatest diplomatic push in history to carry out this mission.
My fear is that we will continue to carry out this mission primarily using the military, which is not in accord with the spirit of liberty. Bush's speech suggests that all countries that have regimes who do not support liberty are legitimate targets. This is a wholly un-pragmatic position and cannot be made to work - as Peggy Noonan said, it was "over the top." Link.
When Bush encouraged the young to engage in service, the image that leaped into my mind was of military service, not volunteerism. I also fear that, as we have done in Iraq, we will use the rhetoric of liberty as a smokescreen to accomplish our military-industrial-geopolitical goals. This will create greater suspicion of the US in the world, not greater trust. Maybe the election in Iraq will prove me wrong. Maybe the Sunnis will boycott and there will be a civil war. In any case, if this speech is an indicator as to how we will deal with the developing nuclear crises in Iran and North Korea, things look grim.
One-party rule is undemocratic enough, but dynastic rule is approaching monarchism. Maybe we should just crown the Bushes and stop pretending we don't have a monarchy.
Would Kerry Throw Us To The Wolves?
Go to factcheck.org regularly to keep track of what you can believe about what the candidates say - which isn't much at all. But at least it tells you what their plans actually are.
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