:: Political Paradigm 'Blog ::

:: Saturday, December 20, 2003 ::

 
 
 
On winter break. Will be back in January!

:: WL 12/20/2003 10:59:00 PM [+]

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:: WL 12/16/2003 01:01:00 PM [+]

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We got him!



Saddam has definitely seen better days. More from the NY Times.

And, William Rivers Pitt wants to give you a grain of salt.

:: WL 12/14/2003 02:40:00 PM [+]

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In case you missed it earlier this week:

-SUNY: Yearly Tuition Hikes
-Senator chastises SUNY for $270,000 hire while increasing tuition

:: WL 12/05/2003 09:56:00 AM [+]

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The New York Post is not usually one to give props to CUNY, but yesterday it ran an editorial calling for more state aid to CUNY.

:: WL 12/05/2003 12:20:00 AM [+]

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Fun with Google: type miserable failure into Google's search box and see what you get. Better yet, hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button! =)

:: WL 12/02/2003 11:34:00 AM [+]

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Class Struggle 101

Following up on Will's post, here's a little tidbit on some of Barbara Ehrenreich's writing. Although I haven't read Nickel and Dimed yet- I'm sure it will make an excellent reading during the upcoming uber-consuming holidays that follow.

:: MC 11/28/2003 10:48:00 AM [+]

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Barbara Ehrenreich is one of the best muckrakers of today's journalism. She's profiled this month in Columbia Journalism Review.

:: WL 11/27/2003 11:07:00 PM [+]

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SCARY!!!

:: WL 11/20/2003 04:41:00 PM [+]

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Now I don't know whether to be scared, angry, or just plain annoyed. The latest crap from those in support of George W. "the Edumacation President" Bush involves defunding college international/area studies programs if they're deemed too leftist. At least the Yalies are doing something about it. Vijay Prashad puts things in perspective.

:: WL 11/16/2003 08:02:00 PM [+]

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It's no secret that college tuition is way too high and getting higher. Here's what some in Congress want to do about it.

:: WL 11/16/2003 02:19:00 AM [+]

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A New York Times report charges that elite colleges get the lion's share of federal education aid money, and it's not necessarily going to needy students.

Plus, some context in the debate on tuition price-caps.

:: WL 11/09/2003 07:17:00 PM [+]

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This is a topic that I've been following on and off since my first days of college. I remember at Columbia, there were maybe 2-3 student suicides every year (and add to that 1-2 murders, but that's another subject). I don't know the statistics for Hunter, but I'm sure the phenomenon isn't unknown here either.

:: WL 11/04/2003 10:27:00 AM [+]

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Tuition hikes at public colleges aren't a problem, so long as the hikes are matched by equivalent financial aid increases, so sez profs from Yale and UC Berkeley.
Speaking of tuition hikes, the Onion once again has the straight story.

:: WL 10/30/2003 10:32:00 AM [+]

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The further misedumacation of George W. Bush

Bush bitch-slaps education again! For years, nobody in DC touched the Pell Grant program. Low as the grant amounts were, they still helped thousands of low-income students go to college. Now the "no child left behind" president may be leaving behind 85,000 students by changing the Pell Grant rules.

:: WL 10/30/2003 10:07:00 AM [+]

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Here's the latest installment of Timothy Noah's Kurd Sellout Watch on Slate. Now that the Turks are on board with the coalition, what's gonna happen to autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan? Stay tuned.

:: WL 10/23/2003 01:34:00 AM [+]

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Lil' Kim


For those of you that can pick up a copy of the Sunday New York Times- you should definitely read this week's article on Kim Jong Il titled The Last Emperor . It's an excellent read that fleshes out his muddled family history and personal background quite nicely- a lot like the last episodes of Dallas, only with Nuclear Weapons.

One of my favorites lines definitely has to be- "Until recently, conventional wisdom held that through the 70's and 80's Kim Jong Il filled his nights with parties and days with terrorism." Aah yes- like many of us at SPSA.

:: MC 10/18/2003 05:21:00 PM [+]

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Harvard's Rash Attempt to be Funny

Being smart and funny- is something that money or a top tier education can't buy. Check out what the Harvard boyz are doing with their attempt to show their funny side.

Can you smell that? That's what happens when onions get spoiled.

Love,

Miro- your player- hater in Paris.

:: MC 10/15/2003 07:14:00 AM [+]

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Live, from Abu Dhabi, it's the return of Comical Ali!!! =)

:: WL 10/12/2003 03:22:00 PM [+]

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The Governator

It's scary to think that the same guy who wore a loincloth and answered to a guy named Crom- is now governor of the State of California. How did this happen? How did "Arnold Gropenator" manage to oust Davis from his seat? This being only the second time in US history where a governor has been removed.

What perplexes me most is- why didn't we use this same energy and determination to oust another guy? Looking back on that fateful election night, I remember seeing Spike Lee's new movie- Bamboozled with a couple of friends of mine in Brooklyn.

Not realizing at the time that same night the entire nation was being Bamboozled.

:: MC 10/10/2003 04:00:00 AM [+]

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Re: Matthew Hall

First, the latest info:
HUNTER MOURNS MATT HALL
ZULU-SLAY DUO
Zulu Nation Questioned in College Student Assassination

And, from a school-wide e-mail sent by Hunter College President Jennifer Raab:

It is with profound shock and sadness that I must inform you of the death of one of our students, Matthew Hall, who just began his second year with us. We learned this afternoon that Matthew died in Harlem Hospital as a result of a gunshot wound he sustained last night in Harlem.

We have been in contact with the New York City Police Department throughout the day as they conduct their investigation, and are offering a reward of $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for this tragedy.

Matthew was one of our treasures at Hunter. Not only was he a strong student, firmly on track toward his B.A. degree, but he was also engaged in campus life beyond the classroom. Bringing his intelligence and talent from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, Matthew was about to begin his second term as President of the Universal Zulu Nation, a student organization dedicated to preserving Hip Hop culture and promoting love, peace and unity among all races. Clearly a burgeoning leader with great promise, Matthew made significant contributions to our community in his short time at Hunter.

On behalf of everyone at the college, we have extended our heartfelt condolences and support to Matthew's parents, Chantal and George Hall, and to his extended world of family and friends.

We are awaiting word about funeral arrangements and will pass along the information as soon as we hear from the family.

Jennifer J. Raab
President

:: WL 10/03/2003 11:56:00 PM [+]

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Can anybody fill me on the Mattew Hall situtation?

Curious- exchange students want to know.

:: MC 10/03/2003 02:59:00 PM [+]

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I first heard Shashi Tharoor speak at the opening ceremony of NMUN 2002, and I was impressed by his candor and his articulate speaking style. As a higher-up at the UN, he's of course got a pro-UN agenda to push whenever he speaks or writes publicly in defense of the organization, but I find his arguments nonetheless compelling and worth heeding. Here's his latest article in Foreign Affairs. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if Tharoor turns up some day as UN Secretary-General.

:: WL 9/27/2003 02:52:00 AM [+]

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While your were sleeping

A shout out to the Homies in NY- word just got out here in Paris that the eminent scholar and critic,
Dr. Edward Said has passed away.

This is a sad day indeed for all parts of the world no matter where you stand or what you believe in.


Peace

:: MC 9/26/2003 08:20:00 AM [+]

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Lawyers do what they do best: litigate!

Law schools that do not allow recruiters with discriminatory policies on campus are suing to overturn the Solomon Amendment. The amendment requires all universities that receive federal aid to allow military recruiters on campus. Since the military discriminates against homosexuals under "don't ask, don't tell", the law schools (and by extension all schools) have a valid shot at getting rid of this stupid provision, which is similar to some provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (requiring disclosure of student records to recruiters). Maybe the courts will rule against No Child Left Behind's military provision as well. That's not to say I'm against military recruiters on campus, but the decision to let them come should be left to school administrators, not Congress.

(see also: The Misedumacation of George W. Bush)

:: WL 9/24/2003 10:41:00 AM [+]

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First Amendment? What's that?

Hunter students snub the ACLU at last week's on-campus event.

:: WL 9/22/2003 11:32:00 AM [+]

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The Misedumacation of George W. Bush

Surprise! "No Child Left Behind" is leaving children behind by creating unfair burdens on schools. It's not that teachers, administrators, and lawmakers don't want higher education standards, it's that the Bush administration isn't giving schools enough money to meet these new standards. $87 billion for Iraq? How about $87 billion for the schools of Harlem and South Central?

On a side note, did you know the NCLB law requires disclosure of students' information to military recruiters? (I might have sent this item out before on infOrgasm e-mail.)

:: WL 9/21/2003 03:49:00 PM [+]

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Jim Kessler, a private DC consultant, has written a good article for UPI examining Wesley Clark's chances as a presidential candidate.

:: WL 9/17/2003 09:17:00 AM [+]

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A collection of recent education articles from the NY Times of relevance to CUNY:

High Tuition Debts and Low Pay Drain Public Interest Law ...could law school debt cancellation become the most popular solutin?

Study Finds Athletes Have Little Connection to Student Life ...more fuel in the debate about football vs. science labs.

On the Heights, a Chill Wind Begins to Blow ...on Columbia University's expansion effort; CUNY campuses thinking about expansion can undoubtedly learn from this experience.

CUNY Enrollment Increases to Highest Level Since 1975 ...CUNY claims that the tuition hike hasn't driven all that many students away, but I think the hikes are a red herring - the real question is, can CUNY effectively sustain such high enrollment given its pittance of state/federal funding?

When Books Break the Bank ...on the rising cost of college textbooks. Whatever happened to the idea of a Hunter used-book collective or co-op?

:: WL 9/16/2003 09:03:00 AM [+]

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:: WL 9/11/2003 09:55:00 AM [+]

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NJ federal judge orders lawyer to go back to law school. Finally, tort reform that works...

:: WL 9/10/2003 10:48:00 PM [+]

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More from Timothy Noah's Kurd Sellout Watch on Slate.

Day 75: Kurds, the US, and the UN
Day 143: More Kurds, the US, and the UN
Day 147: Turkey wants to move more troops into Iraq

:: WL 8/28/2003 06:54:00 PM [+]

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I'm sure many CUNY and Hunter students are in the same boat as the students quoted for the article below. Not having enough classes (or class sections) available means students end up paying more for college while getting shortchanged in their education. For some courses, especially languages, losing a semester means that both the student and the professor have to waste valuable class time on review instead of new material. Cutting class offerings also artificially lowers the 4-year graduation rate which I believe is still used in part to calculate the US News rankings, the 2004 edition of which is just out:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php
While we may not put much stock in these rankings, they're nevertheless popular (why else would US News now charge for access to them?) and a reality that CUNY must deal with.

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New York Times
As State Colleges Cut Classes, Students Struggle to Finish

August 24, 2003
By GREG WINTER

The moment registration opens, Michele D. Hannah dives for courses with the fury of a fifth-year college student vexed by a constant riddle.

"When will I get the classes I need to graduate?" said Ms. Hannah, Class of "I have no idea" at the University of Iowa.

Classes have gotten so tight, or so scarce, that Ms. Hannah says she trolls the university's Web site like a day trader, checking every few hours for the stray course opening that might suddenly appear.

But it probably will not. At many public universities, grappling with record budget cuts and enrollments at the same time, the classroom is no longer being spared. After whittling away at staff, coaxing faculty members to juggle more classes, stripping sports teams and trusting aging roofs to hold out a few years longer, many public universities have reluctantly begun chopping away at academics, making it harder for students to graduate on time.

-snip-

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/24/national/24COLL.html

:: WL 8/24/2003 12:59:00 AM [+]

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Sergio Vieira de Mello up for Nobel Prize?




Brazil's former president wants to nominate the late UN envoy for the Nobel peace prize. It would, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp., require the Nobel committee to make a rule change, but I think it's appropriate given de Mello's work in Kosovo, East Timor, and Iraq. Still, Kofi Annan and the UN system won the prize just two years ago so I don't know if the committee will want to award the prize to another UN figure so soon. It's not a particularly meritorious way of looking at things, but I'm sure the same thoughts will be discussed in Norway during the selection process especially if there's any sort of rule change involved for posthumous awards.

In other news, August 28th marks the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. It's as powerful an oratory today as it was then. You can read the full text (with audio!) here.

:: WL 8/23/2003 11:26:00 PM [+]

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Kids, here's your weekend reading assignment. I'm sure Professor Roberts would put it on her reading list too.

When you think about big military spenders, you think of the US, China, Israel, the UK, and some other ass-whuppers. But Norway? A country that hasn't exactly threatened anybody in the last 300 years? Why yes. Norway's charismatic defense minister is transforming her country's defense-oriented military into a niche fighting force aligned with the Pentagon. And yes, Kristin Krohn Devold isn't just one of only two female defense ministers in NATO, she snowboards and is certified to jump with Special Ops paratroopers. Mad sexy. But she has a point: in today's US hegemony, the only way small countries can get respect is to ''identify what you are good at, and concentrate on it." It's not entirely without risk, as greater perceived alignment with the US brings with it a greater chance of being targeted by al Qaeda. Just look at the Jordanian embassy bombing in Baghdad.

Rome used plenty of "auxiliaries" to fight its wars alongside its venerable legionnaires. Is the US heading in the same direction? Time will tell. In the short run, though, Norway's Devold may be on the short-list to replace the UK's Lord George Robertson as Sec-Gen of NATO. Not bad for ski troops.

:: WL 8/23/2003 03:34:00 AM [+]

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NEWSFLASH: "Wide Angle" program on Italy's Berlusconi tonight!

Channel 13's "Wide Angle" program takes a look at Italy's PM Silvio Berlusconi, the controversial businessman-politician. Check it out tonight at 9pm EDT (or check your local PBS listings).

More on Berlusconi...

:: WL 8/21/2003 06:39:00 PM [+]

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NEWSFLASH: Massive truck bomb blows up UN HQ in Baghdad

It's ironic to think that UN workers in Iraq were probably safer working there under Saddam than now when the US is in charge. CNN reports 13 casualties from this latest terrorist bombing but that number will, sadly, probably go up. It's also reported that Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the top UN official in Iraq, is somewhere alive in the rubble.

The coalition will have some questions to answer, specifically with regard to "soft targets" like the UN HQ. Remember, the UN's only mission in Iraq is humanitarian assistance - they've been shut out of the WMD search and peacekeeping. So for remnant Baathists to target the UN makes little sense, unless it's part of some scorched-earth policy where anything's game. Is it time for a readjustment of the forces deployed to beef up security at aid workers' offices and other civilian buildings? We've already seen the bungled handling of security at the Baghdad museums. Perhaps this bombing will serve as a wake-up call to the Bush administration that they need to get more people to Iraq to guard more places. Fast.

UPDATE: de Mello's dead

:: WL 8/19/2003 01:11:00 PM [+]

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The Blackout of 2003:

Coverage from ABC News and CBS News.

Apparently an overload up near Niagara Falls caused power stations from New York City to Toronto to Detroit to shut down. Bloomberg says power will be restored by tomorrow. Hope everyone gets home safe tonight. Well, at least the blackout hit during daylight hours...

So, where were you when the great blackout of '03 hit? Post your thoughts in the comments box below.

:: WL 8/14/2003 07:23:00 PM [+]

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Coming soon: Watch this space for 2004 Republican and Democratic convention coverage! Stay tuned.

:: WL 8/13/2003 11:07:00 PM [+]

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The latest installment of Timothy Noah's Kurd Sellout Watch on Slate. Is George W. Bush gonna sell out the Iraqi Kurds like his daddy did 12 years ago? Stay tuned.

:: WL 8/05/2003 05:58:00 PM [+]

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More good stuff:

International Crisis Group - The Special Court for Sierra Leone: Promises and Pitfalls of a “New Model”

STRATFOR - The Wall of Sharon

:: WL 8/05/2003 12:39:00 AM [+]

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Kids, your political reading of the week, this time from The Economist:

Most rational people can probably agree that Silvio Berlusconi is hardly a shining example of Italian statesmanship. This week's Economist takes him to task yet again. The magazine explains why it has singled out Berlusconi as the target of its investigation in an "open letter" to the Italian PM. Plus, more from the Economist's coverage from 2001 when Berlusconi became PM: "An Italian Story" "Fit to Run Italy?"

:: WL 8/03/2003 12:22:00 PM [+]

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I'm sorry, something just ain't right with a state that can possibly let Larry Flynt run for governor against Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now I'm all for Larry's free speech work, but even Jerry Springer has some political experience as mayor of Cincinnati.

Again, only in America...

:: WL 8/02/2003 12:46:00 AM [+]

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France's Chance

As the US continues to dither on whether to send peacekeepers into Liberia, I see an opportunity opening up for our friends the French. For years they have claimed to be champions of human rights - "liberté, egalité, fraternité." And in the run-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom, they have taken a position against war for war's sake, as the US campaign is characterized. But now, here we have Liberia. Both the embattled president, Charles Taylor, and the main rebel group, LURD, want international peacekeepers to come referee a cease-fire. And the ordinary people in Liberia also seem desperate for intervention. Liberians may see American peacekeepers and aid almost as a right, due to the historical ties between our two countries. But if the American peacekeeping force is still not coming, wouldn't it be a political coup for Jacques Chirac if he could show up George W. Bush by sending Foreign Legionnares into Monrovia? It'd be delicious - the French doing what the Americans should have done but aren't doing. Certainly it wouldn't shore up relations between Paris and Washington. Well at least not by itself. But it would prove to the world that yes, France still does have some kind of military backbone. And coming off the success of the French intervention in Cote d'Ivoire, a similar West African intervention like this, perhaps involving other EU and NATO powers, would be just the thing to restore some confidence in the European military commands. At least those of "Old Europe." And who knows? Maybe Dubya will even give Frère Jacques a call and say thanks, for keeping American forces free to concentrate on Iraq. Speaking of Iraq, how's that going for ya, George?

:: WL 7/28/2003 12:53:00 AM [+]

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It would have been great if CUNY's bid to host ACUNS won out. Certainly would have been a coup for CUNY. I didn't even know we made a bid... does anyone have more info about that? Anyway, I don't think the IR course offerings at Hunter are in as dire a state as Crossette's article may make it out to be. But still, expanding the IR offerings would always be nice.

Academic Council on U.N. System Leaves U.S. for Canada by Barbara Crossette

U.N. Notebook | July 21, 2003
from U. N. Wire

Academic Council on U.N. System Leaves U.S. for Canada
by Barbara Crossette
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UNITED NATIONS—In 1987, a group of North American foreign affairs scholars got together with some U.N. officials to create an academic association supporting education, research and cooperation on global issues. The founders named it the Academic Council on the United Nations System, and Dartmouth College gave it a home, using a bequest from a former college president, J.S. Dickey. Under an agreement to relocate the headquarters every five years, the council then migrated to Brown University and after that Yale.

This year, ACUNS left the country.

It is not much of a stretch to see the emigration of the organization to Canada as one more symbol of the ambivalent (at best) attitudes among U.S. intellectuals about the United Nations and internationalism in general. True, Yale offered to continue its sponsorship of ACUNS—now with about 900 members in 50 or more countries—and Columbia and the City University of New York also put in bids. But only Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, made the kind of pitch the council's board could not resist.

What Wilfrid Laurier offered, and no U.S. university would match, is the full-time leadership for five years of a tenured associate professor of political science, Alistair D. Edgar. He has been given academic leave to concentrate on making the council a central player in research in international affairs at the cluster of colleges and universities at Waterloo. Furthermore, in making its bid, Wilfrid Laurier also had the political backing of the Canadian government, especially the Foreign Ministry.

A new Canadian think tank in Waterloo, the Center for International Governance Innovation, received a generous grant of $22 million from James Balsillie, the CEO of Research in Motion, producers of the BlackBerry wireless handheld device. Part of that grant, $36,000 this year, will cover the basic operating budget of ACUNS, which has also been supported over the years by the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the Better World Foundation, a sister organization to the United Nations Foundation, which underwrites U.N. Wire.

"Does it mean ACUNS is turning its back on the U.S.?" asks Craig Murphy, professor of political science at Wellesley College and the chairman of the council's board. "I hope not."

Nevertheless, Murphy added in an exchange of e-mails that there is an unmistakable resistance on American campuses to treating the study of international institutions seriously, just as the globalization of everything from the economy to diseases seizes public imagination. "In many American schools there is growing undergraduate interest in international affairs and, especially, in studying multilateral institutions, international law, the political economy of globalization and other interdisciplinary fields," he wrote. "Typically, however, these are not fields considered acceptable to mainstream political science or economics, so the undergraduate (and much graduate) teaching gets done by adjuncts and part-timers."

The people running the departments, meanwhile, are "scholars who see the work in statist terms and tend to reduce many things to the interests and concerns of U.S. policymakers."

This is not unlike the tendency of major American media organizations to cover the world—when they report on foreign affairs at all—largely through U.S. eyes, leaving the agenda on international affairs to be set by whatever administration happens to be in the White House. The United States may be the biggest world power, but it is not much of an international player. Compared with Europe, for example, American diplomacy does not put a high priority on working in international bodies, and jobs there (at least below ambassadorial level) do not rank very high in the career aspirations of U.S. diplomats or among those who train them.

"There is really a generation of scholars in their 30s, mostly born in the late 1960s, throughout U.S. academia who have re-energized the study of the U.N. 'family,' but—and this is an important point—there are very few with concrete knowledge of the U.N. who actually have positions in the leading graduate departments," Murphy says.

In Canada, the academic discipline of international relations not only turns out first-class diplomats with a broader world view but also influences politicians and policymakers. Murphy points out that since ACUNS' inception, every Canadian foreign minister has been involved in the organization. In the United States, only Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state and an ambassador to the United Nations, became a member. In Washington, members of Congress are rarely interested—the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, another ambassador to the United Nations, was an exception.

Yet the council counts in its ranks many leaders in the study and practice of international relations around the world, providing a forum for new or different voices not usually heard in American debate. Among the most active members is Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton and a widely recognized expert in international law and the new International Criminal Court. Other well-known names include Sadako Ogata, the former U.N. high commissioner for refugees who recently co-chaired (with Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize-winning Harvard economist) the independent Commission on Human Security; Jorge Sampaio, president of Portugal; and Sir Marrack Goulding, warden of St. Antony's College, Oxford, and former undersecretary general for political affairs at the United Nations.

The council has published a journal, Global Governance, since 1995, and it also maintains a Web site, now with a new address: http://www.acuns.wlu.ca. When it is updated, it will provide a ready reference for U.N.-related documents and other information.

In a conversation in New York in June, between sessions of the annual ACUNS conference at the United Nations, Edgar, the new executive director of the council, stopped short of saying that it was time the organization found a friendlier country, but he did say he hoped the new Canadian home of the organization would be attractive to its global membership, only about half of which is now from the United States.

This has been a year in which many scholars as well as policymakers outside the United States have despaired of American support for the United Nations. For Americans, Edgar said, the biggest challenge is to build political support in the country for the United Nations and many related institutions.

Canada may be coming to the rescue. One of Edgar's plans is to run workshops across the United States to teach Americans a little more about how the world can work together.

:: WL 7/23/2003 04:21:00 AM [+]

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Novelist Suki Kim chats with actor/producer Welly Yang about the meaning of Asian-American.

Also, Howard Dean may be in the spotlight as the 2004 Democratic presidential frontrunner, but I wouldn't mind if Bill Bradley gave it another run. Here's why.

Meanwhile, Bush is back from Africa. But really nothing's changed.

:: WL 7/16/2003 10:12:00 AM [+]

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A Prime Minister's Questions session not to be missed! Iain Duncan Smith grills Tony Blair on the faked Africa-Iraq connection.

:: WL 7/11/2003 01:34:00 AM [+]

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Dubya manages to fall off an "idiot proof" Segway scooter. With pictures!

:: WL 6/13/2003 11:22:00 PM [+]

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"Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" ringing in the halls of the Senate? Jerry Springer thinks yes. =)

:: WL 6/12/2003 04:59:00 PM [+]

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US says: cooperate with the war crimes tribunal!

US says: don't cooperate with (that other) war crimes tribunal!

Croatia smells a rat

More:
Independent Student Coalition for the ICC
CICC on "Impunity Agreements"
WICC on "Impunity Agreements"

:: WL 5/16/2003 05:44:00 AM [+]

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What liberals think of the anti-war movement: not much.

Judging from the failure of the anti-war movement to generate much momentum even following the massive rallies of the last few months, one has to ask if it's a lost cause tilting at the windmills. Arguably, the answer is yes, and even very activist, very anti-war liberals realize that. One only has to look back at the debacle that was SLAM's attempted "takeover" of Hunter President Jennifer Raab's office back in February for evidence of this.

A few anti-war students from SLAM, the supposedly "populist" organization in control of student government, demanded that President Raab issue an anti-war statement. She refused, and I would say most students, faculty, and administrators with half a brain applauded her decision. As a former free-speech attorney, Raab understood the power of her office and what it would have meant if she had given in to SLAM. It would have meant open season on anyone with moderate or pro-war views. As liberal as the Hunter community is, we are not all placard-waving floozies who burn Bush effigies.

Which brings me back to the main point. Protesting the war and occupation of Iraq is fashionable. It is also completely ineffective in stopping or changing US policy. Why? Because the protesters do not have access to the halls of power. Bush will listen to Colin Powell's concerns about the Geneva Convention before he will listen to any war protester. He said as much after the February 15 rallies.

Real change will happen when liberals use the ballot box and vote for liberals. No, I don't mean voting for Nader as a protest of the two-party system. I mean voting for Dean, Kerry, Grahm, Edwards, Kucinich, or any other Democrat who may actually have a shot at winning.

Politics is about compromise in order to get the most out of your agenda. That is what the anti-war movement needs to learn. Otherwise, all that banner-waving will just drive the pragmatic liberals into the hands of the conservatives. Yes, I started college as a card-carrying socialist. But no thanks to the protest culture of the anti-war movement, which repulsed me with their nonsense, I risk graduating college more conservative than I ever wanted to be.

Essential reading:
I Left My Bleeding Heart in San Francisco
Can There Be a Decent Left?

:: WL 5/14/2003 04:30:00 AM [+]

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This is just lovely... I want Bush to just try and explain this nomination to Congress... He could have picked any former diplomat or any Middle Eastern studies prof. But no, he picks Daniel Pipes. It's not so much that I'm for or against Pipes' nomination, it's just that the sheer amount of controversey Pipes generates should have sent up some warning flares in the West Wing that this is a filibuster waiting to happen... Grr.

Los Angeles Times May 9, 2003

Peace Institute Suddenly at Center of Controversy Bush's nominee for the board meets with opposition because of his views on Muslims.

By Johanna Neuman Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON - At the U.S. Institute of Peace, veterans of the Middle East peace process from several administrations recently sat around brainstorming about lessons learned in their grueling negotiations with the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The session, designed to offer advice to the White House on the eve of new peace talks, is a favored new program at the institute - a research center, with federal funding of $16.2 million a year, that is dedicated to promoting "the prevention, management and peaceful resolution of international conflicts."

Now this quiet haven of foreign policy advisors is at the center of conflict.

President Bush has nominated to the institute's board Daniel Pipes, a neoconservative Middle East scholar whose writings and sound bites have inflamed Muslim leaders. The nomination has sparked a new war between hawks and doves, complete with charges of Muslim-baiting and whispers of Jewish influence.

Pipes directs the Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia think tank that publishes the Middle East Quarterly. A scholar with a doctorate in history from Harvard who has studied Islam for 30 years, he has long warned of the dangers of Islamic extremism, predicting a war of terror against the United States.

Pipes, 53, son of Soviet scholar Richard Pipes, has been outspoken about Muslims. In his work, which includes 11 books, numerous journal and newspaper articles and a variety of television appearances, Pipes has compared Islam with fascism. He has urged more security profiling of Muslims and has argued that the increased Muslim populations in the United States, France, Holland and elsewhere around the world are a danger to Jews.

He also started Campus Watch, which describes itself as a "review and critique" of professors specializing in Middle Eastern studies, to monitor academic work for alleged pro-Arab bias.

The Council of American-Islamic Relations calls Pipes "the premier anti-Muslim attack dog since 9/11." Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the council, said the nomination is disturbing in light of Bush's visit to a mosque in the days after Sept. 11 to preach religious tolerance. "It sends an enormous message of insensitivity to Muslims," Hooper said. The council is lobbying Capitol Hill to kill the nomination.

The institute's 12 board members include representatives of the State Department, the National Defense University and the Pentagon. The other nine members are nominated by the White House and confirmed by the Senate, with the party in the White House controlling the swing seat. Many on both sides of the debate agree that the controversy is largely symbolic, as the power of one board member probably would be tethered to the policies and direction of the institute, which primarily gives awards to scholars studying conflict resolution.

Beyond the controversy over Pipes, however, is a larger issue of what the Institute of Peace should do at a time of unrivaled U.S. military power. Some see Pipes' nomination as an attempt by the Bush White House to shift the focus of the institute from research on peaceful conflict resolution to advocacy of activist military policy - particularly in Israel.

"This is a sad gesture by an administration influenced by far-right, pro-Likud neoconservatives," said Hussein Ibish, communications director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Citing Pipes' well-known view that Israel must defeat the Palestinians in order to secure its own peace, Ibish added that Pipes is almost "uniquely disqualified" for the board. "Anyone with views like this has no business being on the Institute of Peace," he said. "Possibly the Institute of War."

Pipes declined an interview on the specifics of his nomination, pending the decision by the Senate. But when asked about his views on peace, he said, "The strength of the U.S. military is the greatest peacekeeping force in the world. Peace is not achieved through weakness."

The president of the institute, Richard Solomon, is a former ambassador to the Philippines and a former State Department official. He said the institute, once almost exclusively a research organization, is expanding its mission - for example, by training civilian police officers to stabilize Kosovo and sending advisors to the reconstruction effort in Iraq.

"The world has changed, and we have the flexibility to innovate," he said. "We like to think of ourselves as more of a 'do tank' than a think tank."

Patrick Clawson, deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel research organization, is a friend and colleague of Pipes. He noted that when Pipes served on the Fulbright Scholarship board, he did not prevent Muslims from entering the United States. And Clawson marveled that, even under attack, Pipes keeps stoking the fires - in a column that appeared in the New York Post, he argued that a newly liberated Iraq is not suited culturally for democracy and that what is needed is "a democratically minded Iraqi strongman."

Clawson said he believed that Solomon's observation - that the institute is becoming more of a "do tank" - was all the more reason to include conservatives on the board. "What's the point of becoming a 'do tank' if you don't have people on the board who reflect the opinions of U.S. policymakers?" he said.

Holly J. Burkhalter, advocacy director for Physicians for Human Rights, has been on the board since 2000. A Clinton appointee, she said she had not previously spoken out on Pipes' nomination, believing that his political leanings were not an issue. "There is a wide range of views on the board, and we make a wide range of grants," she said. "Our only litmus test is that the scholarship be excellent."

Her concern, she said, is that Pipes is "well-known for having made a career of imposing a different kind of litmus test, an ideological purity movement." Bringing that kind of tactic to the Institute of Peace, she said, could have "a chilling effect" on scholarship.

:: WL 5/10/2003 02:18:00 AM [+]

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They were once men - great kings of men. Then Sauron the deceiver gave to them nine rings of power. Blinded by their greed, they took them without question. One by one they've fallen into darkness. Now they are slaves to his will. They are the Nazgul, Ringwraiths, neither living nor dead. At all times they feel the presence of the Ring, drawn to the power of the One. They will never stop hunting you. - Aragorn, from the (film) Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

US occupation governor of Iraq Jay Garner names 5 of possibly 9 leaders for an Iraqi interim government.

Coincidence? =)

:: WL 5/06/2003 03:03:00 AM [+]

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From a UN News report from May 5:
"A United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) team arrived today in Taiwan Province of China, to support health authorities there in combating the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak, which has accelerated considerably during the past week."

It's disgusting how much the US, the UN, the EU, and almost everyone else has bent over backwards to accomodate China's "one China" policy of denying Taiwan's sovereign existence. It's a political farce worthy of Leno or Jon Stewart if the stakes didn't include the very identity of Taiwan. When will the PRC grow up and face reality?

WHO Director-General Urged to Support Taiwan's WHA Bid
Taiwan Solidarity Union
New Taiwan, Ilha Formosa
World United Formosans for Independence
Health for All: Let Taiwan Join the WHO
Taiwan Deserves a Place in the United Nations
Formosan Association for Public Affairs

:: WL 5/06/2003 02:06:00 AM [+]

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It doesn't matter if you're Kofi Annan or a lowly NGO grunt like me. The rule is the same: don't piss off the hired help.

:: WL 5/04/2003 10:06:00 PM [+]

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Your political reading of the day:

Timothy Noah's 17th installment of his Kurd Sellout Watch, now at Day 60, on Slate.

The DC neocon-Jewish connection debunked by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

You don't know jack about jihad, sez Canada's National Post.

:: WL 5/02/2003 08:31:00 AM [+]

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You've seen them on the news, now ABC News brings you the deck of cards with Iraq's most wanted!

:: WL 5/01/2003 03:02:00 AM [+]

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"War does not determine who is right--only who is left." - Bertrand Russell

:: WL 4/24/2003 02:25:00 AM [+]

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An epitaph for the reign of Saddam Hussein.

:: WL 4/11/2003 03:28:00 AM [+]

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The latest installment of Timothy Noah's Kurd Sellout Watch on Slate.

Plus, images of the looting in Basra.

And, the wit and wisdom of Donald H. Rumsfeld.

:: WL 4/08/2003 05:16:00 PM [+]

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Welcome to the George W. Bush School of Law. It's funny how Bush, the Pentagon, and the State Department seem now to be engaged in "tribunal fever" - setting up military and war crimes tribunals left and right for al Qaeda and Iraq - while still refusing to acknowledge the International Criminal Court. Actually, no, it's not funny at all... it's just sad.

:: WL 4/08/2003 01:05:00 AM [+]

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Spanish Lesson-

Here's a nice little commentary that a friend of mine from Barcelona wrote. It gives us a nice insight on what the Spanish are thinking.

So- yes kids....brush up on your español for this one.




Hola Miroslava,
me alegro de recibir noticias tuyas. Voy a intentar
responder a tus preguntas. Respecto de las elecciones
en España. Las elecciones para presidente del gobierno
se celebran el año próximo y, por cierto, Aznar
anunció hace tiempo que no se va a presentar. Lo
cierto es que tampoco se ha perfilado quien va a ser
el nuevo líder del partido pero ya hay quien dice que
dado el monumental lio en el que Aznar ha puesto a su
partido lo más honesto sería volverse a presentar e
intentar reconducir el camino. La verdad es que yo no
apostaria por ello y será tarea de su sucesor arreglar
el follón. Y es que el follón es enorme. Aznar no
tiene al 85% de la población en contra, sino al 91%
según las últimas encuestas. Barcelona ha vivido las
manisfestaciones mas grandes de su historia. Incluso
Bush padre ha hecho referencia a las mismas. Y si bien
las elecciones para presidente son para dentro de un
año, dentro de dos meses tenemos elecciones
municipales y en otoño regionales, y lo más probable
es que el Partido Popular pague muy caro su posición
en la guerra, posición que se suma al desastre del
petrolero "prestige" unos meses antes. En este
desastre la gestión del gobierno fue simplemente
nefasta, de lo peor que yo he visto.

El ambiente en España está muy crispado. 9 de cada 10
están en contra del gobierno y Aznar está llamando a
todo el mundo irresponsable, radical, desleal etc...
Es su caracter, simplemente no tolera la discrepancia
incluso dentro de su propio partido. Algunos miembros
del mismo han dimitido y otros, expresándose en
privado, critican y dicen lo que no dirían en público.
En este punto debo decir que siento envidia de Blair y
el partido laborista ya que éste ha tolerado un nivel
de discrepancia con, por ejemplo, backbenchers
aplaudiendo a Robin Cook tras su dimisión en los
Comunes, impensable entre las filas del partido
popular. No hay que olvidar que Blair gana la moción a
favor de la guerra gracias a los votos del partido
conservador. Si esta situación se hubiera dado en
España, Aznar hubiera perdido ya que el resto de
partidos estaban y estan en contra.

Mi opinión de la actitud de Aznar es la misma que la
del 91% de españoles. Es simplemente incomprensible.
Nadie entiende aquí que espera sacar Aznar de su
alianza con Bush. Es más, el entorno de España es el
de la Unión Europea, y ahí necesita del apoyo de
Francia y Alemania, precisamente los países a los que
se ha enfrentado. Alejarse de París y Berlín, así como
de buena parte de América Latina, para acercarse a
Washington y Londres, rompe con la política exterior
española de los últimos 20-25 años sin que Aznar haya
explicado a cambio de qué. Me da la impresión de que
Aznar ha confundido influencia con presencia
mediática. Creerse que por salir en las fotos con Bush
y Blair gana influencia en el mundo, es de tontos. Y,
lo peor, es que los intereses del país van a salir
perjudicados a la corta.

Respecto a la guerra en sí. Yo soy de la opinión que,
más allá del drama que supone cualquier conflicto, lo
que nos estamos jugando es el orden internacional del
futuro. No es de recibo que Estados Unidos se crea con
derecho a hacer su propia ley, y actuar en el mundo a
su antojo. En otras palabras, no puede ser que el
futuro sea uno con normas para todos menos para
uno.Pero el unilateralismo de la administración Bush,
con gente como Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz o Rice es algo que
da miedo. Leer los informes del Project for a New
American Century o el documento de estrategia
publicado en septiembre de 2002, donde se afirma que
Estados Unidos debe intervenir allí donde lo convenga,
sin ayuda de nadie y cuando lo desee es para echarse a
temblar. Por cierto el domingo vimos por televisión
un reportaje sobre las iglesias ultraconservadoras de
Estados Unidos, con apariciones de Bush en alguna de
ellas, que me pareció terrible. Yo no se hasta que
punto la administración norteamericana no se da cuenta
de como esa religiosidad ultraconservadora está
alejada de los valores europeos actuales y, por
contra, como la acerca a los paises más
fundamentalistas del mundo árabe. Francamente hubo
momentos del reportaje que más que Estados Unidos
parecía Irán.

Bueno Miroslava espero que que con este mail de
respuesta iniciemos un diálogo que seguro será
interesante.

tu amigo
Victor.

:: MC 3/31/2003 11:04:00 PM [+]

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So it looks like we're going to war. Bush's ultimatum was less an ultimatum and more a thinly veiled declaration of war - the decision to strike has already been made. All Tommy Franks is waiting for is the clock to strike 8:15pm on Wednesday. By midnight, I'm betting the army will have already crossed the DMZ into Iraq. What then? Will Congress pass a formal declaration? More protests in the streets? MP5-wielding cops and soldiers on every street corner of America? The Bush team and the soldiers deployed overseas may have been prepared for this for months, but I seriously doubt that the American people really are. True, we've been following the news about heightened security in the cities, and the vague but grandiose schemes to rebuild postwar Iraq. But this administration has yet to come clean with the American people about the true costs and the true direction of this war. A war on Iraq isn't even in the defense budget for the upcoming fiscal year! And what of postwar Iraq? Nobody is reassured by the thought of a US military occupation, but a thorough postwar plan might have helped turn the tide in global antiwar opinion. Either Bush really hasn't thought this out as completely as we'd been led to believe, or he's just going to string the public along for this roller-coaster ride. Somehow the people will just have to trust this guy. For the "leader of the free world," such blind trust does not come free, and is not carte blanche. Democracy demands answers, and Bush better some provide honest ones before I'm ready to say I support the President's decision.

:: WL 3/18/2003 02:27:00 AM [+]

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Water Water Everywhere

Does the commodification and privitization of water resources worldwide pose a significant threat to international security in the 21st century? The World Water Forum in Kyoto, which opens today, will try to address the problem of access to clean water, especially for the world's poorest people. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, "6000 children die every day from water-related diseases" and "half the world's population will face water shortages by 2025." Clearly, though water resources (or the lack thereof) may not be an obvious international security problem, the fallout from unrest over water certainly will be. Social unrest over lack of water can easily spill over into intrastate and even interstate conflict. Even in the US, there have been protests over city utilities cutting off people's water.

Yet like most global ecological problems, water access, water cleanliness, and sustainable water management can be solved. The science is there. But the political will is not. The UN estimates that it will take $50 billion to $100 billion per year to provide clean water for everyone. However, while access to clean water has been recognized as a human right, how can those rights be translated into action? It is easy to put most of the burden on developed countries like the US, Japan, Canada, and the EU. They of course have the most money to spend on water and are probably also the heaviest consumers. But more funding is not enough. Of course more funding is needed, but what is also needed is for stakeholders - governments, industry, consumers - to look at water holistically.

What is known in classical economics as the commons may have been fenced off by private concerns a long time ago. But unlike oil, gold, or diamonds, there is enough water on this planet to sustain 6 billion people and more. And water is immensely more precious than any of the other three commodities. Major powers, especially the US, cannot afford to shy away from an international framework for managing the world's water. Maybe what is needed to convince Washington policymakers that water will become an important factor in politics in the near future is to treat water with the same urgency and emphasis of security as, say, plutonium.Otherwise, there might not be a drop to drink left for anyone.

More on water:
"Cadillac Desert" PBS documentary
UN World Water Day: March 22, 2003

:: WL 3/16/2003 04:01:00 AM [+]

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In a followup to a New York Sun article I linked to yesterday, Slate asserts that a) Richard Perle isn't serious about suing Seymour Hersh and the New Yorker in the UK and b) even if he did, the UK courts would probably dismiss anyway. Jack Shafer on Perle/Hersh.

Also in Slate, Timothy Noah has written another installment of his Kurd Sellout Watch. And, the Slate Field Guide to Iraq Pundits, on the talking heads coming to a cable TV news show near you soon!

:: WL 3/15/2003 01:13:00 PM [+]

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Class, more political reading for today! =)

Papua New Guinea doesn't make it into the news much in the US, but for Australia, it's a failed state waiting to happen.

And, are expert witnesses in court really all that expert or impartial?

And, the intersection of war and the media in the current Iraq crisis is not a pretty picture:
Helen Thomas, who's been a White House press corps fixture since Kennedy, was snubbed at Bush's March 6 press conference
FAIR slams MSNBC for ditching Donahue and hiring Mike Savage
Journalists speak out at Columbia University about government censorship of reporters on the ground in Iraq and Kuwait
MTV and other networks have refused to air both pro and anti war advocacy ads
Defense Policy Board chairman and all-around war hawk Richard Perle is suing the New Yorker, in the UK no less
The Kansas City Star asserts that reporters embedding with the military is a win-win scenario
More on "embedding"
And, why aren't we hearing more about the US spy attempt at the UN SC?

And, when I grow up, I wanna be President! Democratic hopefuls talk shop:
Edwards, Kerry, Gephardt, and Lieberman in Foreign Policy
The Democratic Leadership Council's Blueprint Magazine looks at the candidates
And, inspiration, Bubba style

:: WL 3/14/2003 01:42:00 PM [+]

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Timothy Noah has posted another installment of his Kurd Sellout Watch series on Slate. The Kurds really have been left out in the cold in Bush's zeal to bring Turkey into the fold. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that both the BBC and ABC News have reported that Turkish tanks have already started rolling into northern Iraq. More from the NY Times' Nicholas Kristof on the Turkish side of Kurdistan.

And, the Taiwan Journal puts in a word about the selling out of Taiwan by the US, by the media, by Hollywood, and by Europe. Well, in slight defense of Europe, the EU did just open a new trade office in Taipei. Alas, unlike the AIT/TECO arrangement with the US, the new EU office won't handle consular or diplomatic affairs.

-WL

:: WL 3/14/2003 01:33:00 AM [+]

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In response to the previous post, what worries me most about Iran is that, mullahs and religious police aside, Iran has a real shot at becoming a pluralist democracy some time this decade. Reading dispatches by Thomas Friedman and other journalists reporting from Iran over the past year, it seems that many of the ordinary citizens of Iran have given up on Ayatollah Khomeini's revolution. Unlike Iraq or North Korea, there's an open reform movement in Iran. True it's kept under check by the old-line religious authorities, but the conservatives are dying out. According to the IHT article, 70% of Iranians are under 30 years old. They might have grown up with the revolution, but they certainly aren't benefitting much from it. According to the World Factbook, Iran's unemployment rate is 14% and per capita GDP is $6400. Compare that to less than 6% unemployment in the US and per capita GDP more than $36000.

Smart US policy decisions toward Iran over the next few years will be absolutely critical to the success of Iran's internal reform movement. Labeling them as part of the "axis of evil" was just plain dumb. Yes, Iran's hard-line leaders are pursuing WMD. But at the same time, Iran has signed the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, a fact not often appreciated in the US. Schizophrenia? Probably. But that tells us something. It tells us that there are some decision-makers in Iran that are amenable to us, pragmatic and reform-minded enough to look past the ghosts of 1979. These are the people we should be helping, instead of writing off the entire country with the blanket "axis" label.

-WL

:: WL 3/13/2003 10:53:00 AM [+]

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More transcripts:

US/UK draft resolution with the March 17 deadline
Francois Lonseny Fall at the UN, 3/7/03
Farouk al-Sharaa at the UN, 3/7/03
Munir Akram at the UN, 3/7/03

Oh and also here's an interesting profile of Dominique de Villepin, the French foreign minister.

-Will Lim

:: WL 3/08/2003 01:23:00 PM [+]

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