Joi Ito found a good article on the International Herald Tribune about what international observers are saying about our election process. Joi’s comment on the last two paragraphs is good. I’m one of those Americans who travels internationally. I don’t do it because I have affiliation to another country (unless we finally get the New York succession movement going), but because I have friends and family overseas, I like to travel and because of work and research. When you leave the farm you realize how small the world is. I know it’s trite, but it’s true. The sad thing is that the debate about our place in the world mimics the debates we had in this country about the development of urban centers; it’s about contact with the “other.” The problem with Empire is that it is all about the “other.” Can’t eat your cake and have it too, and I don’t think the Republicans have understood that yet. I’m waiting for the rebirth of a conservative movement in this country. Isolationist and xenophobic makes much more sense than expansionist and xenophobic.
Related Posts
Sept. 11 Memorial Obscures a Police Cadet’s Bravery – NYTimes.com
Sept. 11 Memorial Obscures a Police Cadet’s Bravery – NYTimes.com. And Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, one of two Muslim members of Congress, was brought to tears during a Congressional hearing in March while describing how the man, a Pakistani-American from Queens, had wrongly been suspected of involvement in the attacks, before he was lionized as a young police cadet who had died trying to save lives. Despite this history, Mohammad Salman Hamdani is nowhere to be found in the long list of fallen first responders at the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan.
Anti-War March – Press Release
Blog Advisory FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Katie Barge 202-481-8147 / 202-243-8289 kbarge@faithinpubliclife.org FRIDAY MARCH 16 3,500 Christian Leaders from 48 States to Protest War at National Cathedral, Mass Arrests Expected at White House (Washington, DC) – Christian Peace Witness for Iraq will begin with a worship service on Friday, March 16 at Washington National Cathedral to be attended by more than 3,500 people of faith from 48 states, followed by a candlelight procession through the center of our nation’s capital, where thousands will surround the White House bearing the light of peace, and 700 will risk arrest by remaining in…
Friends and Enemies
So, Americans can be spied upon by the NSA without the need of a warrant. No need to be worried (sorry Calabash [1, 2, 3]). Individuals who have attempted to assassinate OBL are imprisoned and tortured for that act. (That means it’s a crime to take down America’s most wanted?) Individuals who are actively killing Americans are arrested and released just for fun. Any questions as to how the war on terror(ism) is going? Technorati Tags: Afghanistan, domestic surveillance, Iraq
2 thoughts on “International Observers”
Comments are closed.
There’s also a good post about international observers here.
It’s an interesting article, though most of the criticism seems a reflection on the decentralization that is, at least in theory, essential in the system. As far as the Constitution is concerned, the manner in which each state chooses its electors is utterly at the discretion of the state legislature. I don’t think that, in theory, a given state has to hold presidential elections at all. You can argue that this makes no sense anymore — but it’s not an accident, it’s the way the country was written.
But then, individual states should still get their acts together.