Who would have thought when I wrote this that six years later a leading contender for nominee as Republican U.S. presidential candidate would be arguing the same thing in his campaign.
He sums up the problem with U.S. foreign policy nicely: “We don’t mind our own business!”
Fun fact: U.S. military veterans have given more money to Ron Paul’s campaign than all the other campaigns put together.
I chatted with some of my kid’s friends — currently @ university — they paint a picture of their generation as being totally distrustful of government, politicians, the media and the financial system. They view companies as only out to take as much money off them as possible and they see those in power as cynical, self-interested people who don’t have their best interests at heart.
Most don’t read a newspaper and get their news online from a wide range of sources — bloggers, social media etc. Those who are on the escalator to a job and a career are pretty damning about youff culture — the Chav generation — of reality TV, obssessed with celebs and football.
They fully expect the financial system to collapse sooner or later and seem to relish this possibility so that they can fundamentally remould society when it does — more just, less polluting, less violent seems to be the aim.
I’ve long been a fervent critic of the U.S. but it wasn’t always this way. The fervour came about from a realisation that much of what I was led to believe about America as a child was a lie. I don’t have the same fervour when it comes to abusive powers like China and Russia. I wasn’t constantly barraged with the notion that these countries are the greatest nations ever to have graced the planet with their presence. It’s a high expectations, low outcomes kind of a thing.
And so to the latest example of American hypocrisy. While the U.S. preaches to the world about justice and freedom it is renowned for the opposite:
It’s quite notable that the mere threat of ending up in American custody is considered (at least by Assange’s lawyers) to be a viable basis for contesting extradition on human rights grounds. Indeed, this argument is not unusual.
Indeed, almost every person I’ve spoken who has or had anything to do with WikiLeaks expresses one fear above all others: the possibility that they will end up in American custody and subjected to its lawless War on Terror “justice system.” Americans still like to think of themselves as “leaders of the free world,” but in the eyes of many, it’s exactly the “free world” to which American policies are so antithetical and threatening.
Stuff.co.nz is reporting this morning on U.S. cables, obtained by WikiLeaks, that reveal senior New Zealand Defence Ministry officials have been spying for the U.S., in this case secretly briefing the United States embassy on Cabinet discussions about the Iraq war.
I would hope they are tracked down and kindly relieved of their duties. Count me as an indignant “other-worlder.”
The Tea Party — thousands of hard-working middle-class FOX viewers fighting to make sure the rich pay less in taxes.
Free Bradley Manning website.
Dylan Ratigan interviews Daniel Ellsberg — the guy who blew the whistle on the Vietnam War in 1971 — about WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning.
And Ann Wright, retired US Colonel and Diplomat, says Bradley Manning should be praised.
Why were you in China?” asked the passport control officer, a woman with the appearance and disposition of a prison matron.
“None of your business,” I said.
Her eyes widened in disbelief.
“Excuse me?” she asked.
“I’m not going to be interrogated as a pre-condition of re-entering my own country,” I said.
This did not go over well.
Some great stuff in his follow up too:
Many of the commenters took issue with my rude tone toward the CBP officers. This criticism is profoundly misguided.
To the authoritarian mind, there are only two responses to a demand: submission or defiance, and anything less than total submission is defiance.
(via Jonathan Wight)
No Right Turn has the low down:
Oh, not in practice, of course. But in form. The Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Bill, passed unanimously less than an hour ago, gives Brownlee the power to repeal or modify practically any law on our statute book, without even having to refer to Cabinet, let alone Parliament.