Can this madness be stopped?

by Volker Weber

It is not only that you are treating your visitors as crimimals, taking finger prints and pictures.

Tonight in LA, the L.A. Press Club hosts a panel about how LAX border guards have been stopping European and Australian reporters at the airport, cuffing and searching them, and shipping them back home, for failing to have a previously undemanded Journalist Visa.

Your country is losing a peace.

More >

Comments

This is continuing absurdity from the Bush administration. But there is hope.

I worked on my first political campaign 30 years ago, and I have *NEVER* seen so many people getting so organized at the grassroots level as I have this year. Many, many people are mad as hell at Bush and Cheney and all the lies and harm that has been done here in the USA and around the world, and all the lives lost because of Bush's lies. I am extremely optimistic that Bush's time in the White House will end this year and the USA can begin to get back on track.

Joe Litton, 2004-07-08

Right on Joe! ABB

Bruce Elgort, 2004-07-08

Let's hope the USA can get back on track with a 'real' president instead of yet another bush-like president...
Frankly, Bush scares me : he seems to believe what he says.

Alex, 2004-07-08

LOL Do you people think that things will *improve* with a Kerry/Edwards ticket in the White House? I hate to break it to you, but it's *time* that will solve this, not who wins in November. I am no fan of W's, but his competition is the guy that tripped over himself voting for the Patriot Act and authorizing the invasion of Iraq. If the Democrats had managed to find a candidate that had some new political ideas, they could have walked away with the election. Few Americans will be voting *for* a candidate in November -- they'll be voting *against* the other guy.

The two party system has never looked so bad.

Nathan T. Freeman, 2004-07-08

I'm sorry, Nathan, but that is ridiculous. I certainly do believe that things will change under Kerry/Edwards. Part of the reason we got into this mess is the widespread message in the last election that it "just didn't matter" who we elected, and there were frequent editorial cartoons showing Bush and Gore as two sides of the same coin, or as people flipping a coin to decide which to vote for. But do I believe Gore would have decimated the environment, given massive tax cuts to the wealthy, curtailed civil liberties, started a war under false pretexts? No. I like Kerry a great deal, and donated money to his campaign from the very beginning, and he is an excellent candidate. The vote to "authorize the war in Iraq" was a brilliant move on the Bush side, since they manuevered the Senate into poistion where the vote was supposed to be used as a blunt threat to Saddam, and then Bush used it afterwards to justify actually going to war. If you really think Kerry is as stupid and controlled by special interests as Bush, I urge you to spend some time really listening to Kerry and not just reading the barbs thrown at him. Don't let Bush define Kerry for you, find out for yourself, and I think you will become a supporter as well. In any case, I do trust Kerry to stop this madness of stifling journalists, which is the real question raised.

Ben Langhinrichs, 2004-07-08

"Do you people think that things will *improve* with a Kerry/Edwards ticket in the White House?"

Yes. Maybe not to the point where we'd like it to be, but getting Bush & Cheney out of office is the first step in the right direction.


"Few Americans will be voting *for* a candidate in November -- they'll be voting *against* the other guy."

So be it. The world will be better off without Bush.

I don't see how enforcing existing immigration laws can be considered a bad thing. Part of the problem that allowed Septer 11th to happen was weak enforcement of existing immigration laws.

Isn't enforcing all existing laws the first step to fixing a broken law enforcement agency? If the laws don't work there's a process for changing them, but non-enforcement can't be the answer anymore.

Scott, 2004-07-08

In case I wasn't clear, I will be voting FOR Kerry, not just against Bush, although I do understand that some people feel that way.

Ben Langhinrichs, 2004-07-08

Scott, while this sounds good, I think you would find that there are a great many laws on the books that are not enforced, and it takes a great deal of time to change them. I would prefer that they were changed, of course.

Ben Langhinrichs, 2004-07-08

It certainly is a bitch running a country, isn't it? I think EA should create "The Sims: U.S. Politics" and all candidates should be required to play!

Joseph Pollone, 2004-07-08

Scott, Ben
the point is not about enforcing a law, but how embarissing that law is. One of the things you US citizens can be proud of is your constitution including the right of free speech. IMHO this law is a violation of exactly this spirit. Journalist are an important channel to promote free speech and diversity. So why is this group then denied the same access to the US as the rest of the visiting foreigners?
One thing I never fully understood: while hardnose conservatives demand, that their utterings have to be protected by the right of free speech, they brandmark critical voices as un-american and want to deny that very right to them. How does that fit?
G.W. Bush certainly hasn't defended the constitution well ("Who is not with us, is against us" - Classical Stalinist rhetoric) and that is (for me) reason enough that he has to go.
My 0.02 SGD

Stephan H. Wissel, 2004-07-09

Stephan: Very well put indeed!

14 Symptoms of Fascism

Joe Litton, 2004-07-09

Okay, Ben. Whatever you say. How 'bout I just get the hell out of Dodge?

Nathan T. Freeman, 2004-07-09

Nathan - Do what you please. We don't have to agree. I just don't like the assertion that "Few Americans will be voting *for* a candidate in November" and see little evidence that backs it up. Kerry won the primaries by high margins throughout, even when Dean was the presumptive choice. He draws large crowds, who don't need to go see him to vote against Bush. I just think those sorts of blanket statements lead to more apathy and to some of the exact problems with the two party system that you don't like. Hey, I like third party candidates and have voted for them before (esp. John Anderson), and I wish we had a more multi-party system, but I don't like Nader and think his reasons for being in the race this year are lousy (as opposed to the last time, where they were reasonable - I do not blame him for Gore losing as some Democrats do, because Gore had to do everything wrong to manage to lose that election, and he did). Please don't just repeat the media chant that "nobody really likes Kerry, but there was nobody better", or you are just playing into the Republican media machine. Do you have any serious evidence or reason to indpendently believe that, or just what you read in the establishment press?

Ben Langhinrichs, 2004-07-09

Do you think the establishment press is *down* on Kerry? We must not read the same news sources (which doesn't surprise me.)

My experience is, admittedly, anecdotal. I should have said "most Americans I know." I've met a handful of people that consider Bush a good President (a small handful... we're talking single digits.) I've met exactly no one who thinks that Kerry is good in anyway other than being not Bush. I'm sure this varies widely in other parts of the country, but in any political discussion anywhere in my life, you are the ONLY person I've met who says "Kerry is good on his own merits." I'm hardly the scientific medium of statistical measures of popularity, of course. But hell, even Bruce's response on this thread was "Anyone But Bush." That ain't exactly a ringing endorsement.

One thing to note: I operate on the fundamental assumption that all politicians are trouser snakes. I think this is a historically supportable assumption. I have no more confidence in people who try to be popular for a living as adults than I did when they were kids. I'm the kind of person that seriously considered going out to the protests in Tallahassee after the 2000 election and walking around with a sign that says "Who cares about the count? They're both useless."

Nathan T. Freeman, 2004-07-09

Old vowe.net archive pages

I explain difficult concepts in simple ways. For free, and for money. Clue procurement and bullshit detection.

vowe

Paypal vowe