5Feb/1010
Odds and Ends
Apologies for the relative silence as of late, but here are a few comments to whet your appetite:
- Isn't the obvious conclusion from the Obama/Scott Brown/health care debacle that the American political system is hopelessly dysfunctional? We're faced with the odd situation that a president elected in a near-landslide from a party with large majorities in both houses of Congress cannot pass a basic element of his agenda due to the dogged intransigent by the minority party, who have shown that if nothing else they possess discipline. Many have suggested doing away with the filibuster rules; I'd go a step further and junk the US Senate entirely. But no- such an idea is an anathema to a large number of Americans who believe in the divinity of a group of men who lived in an era in which powdered wigs were worn to court and black people were counted as 60 percent citizens.
- Obama's biggest problem is that he labors under the misconception that the Republicans are operating in good faith and are a worthy opposition party. They're not. They're simply a group of men and women who, facing near-extinction after last year's election results, have devoted themselves fully to blocking Obama's legislative agenda. They have no principles, and it is important to recall that next time you hear one of their leaders blathering on about big government. Any sincerity they might have had on that subject is laughable; nobody said a word about government spending when Bush was in office.
- I was going to write a blog-post about how the media is overreacting to the latest round of China-US bickering but then Christina Larson of Foreign Policy did it for me
- A word about the Dalai Lama, though. The Chinese media goes to great lengths describing the Lama as a wicked, horrible human being, a view totally at odds with his international reputation as a beatific spiritual leader. All Beijing does by vilifying the Dalai Lama- and Rebiya Kadeer for that matter- is make themselves seem ridiculous and out of touch to the rest of the world. Wouldn't it be easier to calmly let them agitate, knowing that neither side can realistically achieve any sort of independence? Or is this propaganda merely meant for domestic consumption?
